The Nameless Brothers
by SilverSnowflake9798
Summary: Who are we? Well, that's a tough one. See, I'm not really sure. My parents didn't give us names. Can you really blame them though? How would they name us if they didn't know we exist? Sequel to Sinbad's biggest secret.
1. Prologue

Prologue (and sort of backstory to the boys)

 **I was gone one month. Only one month. And Hakuei and Sinbad meet in the manga? What the heck? And in such a terrible way! I'm happy that they met, but in that setting? In the middle of a war, with her distressed and him about to fight her family? I'm not okay!**

 **When I ended the last story, one person reviewed saying that they knew that they were the future kids of Sinbad and Hakuei. Hahahaha…yes and no.**

Who am I? Well, that's a tough one. See, I'm not really sure. And if I don't know myself, I can't give you the proper answer now can I? My brother would get mad at me if I did, saying something about how lying is rude. Ah well, I guess I can give you a summary.

I know my parents. My mom was princess Hakuei of the Kou Empire, and was supposed to be the queen of Sindria. My dad, the guy with purple hair, is King Sinbad of Sindria, and head of the 7 seas alliance. Cool right? I know a lot about them! I guess that's a given. I've been following them around my whole life. Too bad they don't know that. My life would be so much easier if they knew I existed. See, here's the thing. When my mom was pregnant with me, she kinda bit the dust. Ow! My little brothers saying that's rude to say it like that.

 _You know it is!_

Well how do you want me to say it? Okay fine, 'passed away.' Ow! Why did you hit me again?

 _She didn't die!_

Oh, right. She didn't' technically die. I guess you could say it was…um, kind of like a coma. So she was still alive, but just, not really doing much. Kind of like what happened to that mister Alibaba a while ago? Sounds right. Anyway, after that happened, my dad was pretty upset. So he went to some guy with a hat,

 _Yunan. His name was Yunan._

Was it? I thought that was a different guy.

 _How am I the younger one?_

Hey, no more sass! Yunan said that he could help fix my mom, but he had to redo the world in order to do it. Pretty big debt, am I right? Dad agreed, but things didn't go right. I guess it kind of turned out as planned, but it was a sad plan. The entire world changed. Or at least theirs I guess. Yeah, he changed it. Basically sent everyone to another universe and changed it so that my mom had never met my dad. For a while it probably went well. They would have both lived their own lives, separate and happy.

 _Sort of._

That's true. I bet they were happy, but not as happy as when they were together.. Sure, that's biased coming from their kids, but it's true! Later though, on the day that reality changed, Yunan promised to give my dad and a few of his friends their memories back. That's good, cause we'll need our dad to have his memories for us to find him. Ow! Don't kick me!

 _Don't just say that without explaining!_

What is left to explain?

 _They don't know that we need to find them! And you're forgetting the most important part!_

What?

 _You haven't introduced us yet!_

…I was GETTING to that.

 _No you weren't._

How would you know? Sheesh! Anyway, yeah, there's us too. You're probably wondering what this has to do with all of us. Or why we even exist, if we were never born. Well, mom was pregnant with me, so that was a new human life. And once the world changed, it wasn't like I was just going to disappear. So I popped up in a plane of non-existence I guess. I can skip from time to time, wherever I want, with no one seeing, hearing or ever finding me. Heck, I can even go into alternate universes! Trust me, they are weird. People can see me in them, if they are REALLY different from our world. Like, in a different timeline and stuff. But I don't exist in any world right now, so all I can do is watch. At least, not yet. We're hoping to change that.

 _Hey! What about me!_

I was getting to that, don't be impatient. And this is my little brother. I guess he was supposed to be born sometime after me, because here he is! The reason you can't hear him speak is because, he can't. Well, he can, but not very well. Since he wasn't alive when mom died, yet was still born because he was supposed to be in the time line, he's a bit impaired. He was blind and deaf when I first found him. Eventually that passed, but now he can't talk right. We're working on it. He's about…6, and I'm 12. I think. I'm bad with remembering ages. We're both really tall for our age though. We think we get that from our mom's side growing up really quickly, and dad's height. It's undetermined.

 _What do you think we should let them call us?_

Huh. I'm not sure. He doesn't' have a name. Neither of us have names, since no one was around to really name us. Sometimes I like to call myself Jafar, and brother likes to call himself K. Other times I like to call myself Masrur, and my brother calls himself Seisyun. We always change names. I'm not sure what you can call us…how about we stick with big brother and little brother?

 _That's so confusing!_

No it's not! That's what we go by all the time!

 _But when we see people from parallel universes, they always get some kind of name to call us!_

I'm sure they'll figure it out. There is only two of us.

 _The rate you talk at makes people think it's more than two._

SHHH! Anyway, so the reason we are here is because we've got to figure out a way to exist. This whole thing where we're hopping from universe you universe? That's only a temporary thing. We need to find the new universe that our parents are in and make sure they get together so that we can be born! If we don't have any chance of existing, we will fade away. Aka-die. Not that heaven sounds bad. Sounds pretty good if you ask me, but that's not the point. I want to exist! I want to meet my dad, and not just stalking him and mom throughout their lives. So we've got to find them and fix them up!

 _It's easier said than done however._

Right. There's a few roadblocks in our way. One: we don't know WHICH universe they are in. There are a TON of parallel universes, and we have to find just the right one that they are in, since only one of them would be our parents. 2: there are different versions of them. Parallel ones in different worlds. Which makes it harder to discover which ones are our parents or not. Luckily dad should have been given his memories back, and that will make him easier to find. I'm sure that he did something to get her back. Dad's tough, he wouldn't have given up that easily!

 _…_ _Anyway._

And 3rd: If a universe is too close to ours, we can't enter it. If it's like, in the same time period or has all the same people, we'd just walk right through them. That makes it a bit harder to make any kind of dent, or even figure out if it IS the universe we are looking for. My djinn can only get us into ones that are different than ones like the one we were supposed to be born in. Sucks, right? If someone invites us in, we can go, but only then. I'm sure we'll figure it out somehow though!

 _How do you know?_

I always have a plan.

 _What? You never have a plan. You just randomly jump into stuff without thinking._

Hey, it all works out in the end! So anyway, that's our goal. Us trying to make sure we exist. Sounds kinda crocidally huh?

 _I don't think that's a real word._

Sure it is! I heard dad say it once, at that memory we visited a week ago!

 _I thought daddy was drunk then._

Oh. Right. Anyway, that's our story. And I really want to exist, so you know, wish us luck I guess. If there is luck where we are from.

 **This is a very confusing backstory to the two of them. It's really rough, and there will be a deeper explanation into the story. This is just a rough explanation to help people get an overview and so I could get this story started. Read on if you want to figure out what happens!**


	2. Wakey Wakey

Wakey wakey

There is no time. No time at all. We have nowhere to go, no place to be, and nothing holding us down whatsoever. We can do whatever we want, wherever in the world, no matter what the cost. And yet, even without all of these rules, restrictions, with nothing holding us back at all…

My brother still wakes me up early.

I hear the creek of the door as his little feet patter across the wood. Everything inside me aches as I wait those agonizingly long few seconds for it to happen. There is a creek in my bed, and I move when the bed is shifted downwards. His little grunts torture me as he tried to get on the bed. Though I know it's inevitable, I squeeze my eyes shut and pray, _please no. please no. It's too early. How can he wake up this early? Let him change his mind. I want to sleep. Please, please, please…_

My prayers went answered.

"Wakey Wakey big brofer," my younger brother yelled at me. I groaned and flopped over on my front. I could FEEL him glaring at me. The next thing I knew the bed was jolting up and down as he jumped on the bed. "Wake-down. Wake-down!"

"The expression is 'wake-up' doofus," my words were mumbled out of my pillow. He stopped for a second to process that, then continued on his jumping spree. Groaning I pulled one of my pillows off the bed and threw it at him. My bed got lighter, and I heard him land on the ground with a thump.

"OW!"

I snorted a bit, surprised that he had said it out loud instead of with telepathy like he normally did. "Oh you'll be fine you big baby," I told him, turning my head just enough so that I could see his pouting little face. With a groan I regretfully admitted, "Whatever. I'm already awake, and you suck." Instead of acknowledging my pain, he just smiled and made a halo appear above him. "Yeah yeah yeah." Flipping onto my back I covered my face with my hand. "Anyway, yawn, what name do you want today?" my brother paused, as he thought about it.

"Mm…Hakuyuu." Huh, he actually said it right. Couldn't get brother right, but could say Hakuyuu right?

"That's a stupid name," I told him just to tease him. "It sounds too much like Hakuryuu. Pick a different one!"

The annoyance in his voice was easy to hear. "No!" He yelled at me, annoyed.

"You really want to go around all day with me calling you by that stupid, silly name? All day? Well if you want me to HAKUyuu," I said, exaggerating the first part for exaggerated effect. Just to clear my alibi, I don't hate the name. My uncle would probably kill me if he heard what I was saying. But what do you expect? He's my little brother. It's my job-no, my DUTY to try and poke holes into everything he says.

His face started turning red in embarrassment. "Stop it!" huffing, he started talking to me telepathically, since he couldn't say the words he wanted to say on his own. _Stop making fun of our uncles name brother, you know very well that it's very rude to say that about a dead person!_ How is it that in his head he somehow sounds older than me?

"Whatever you say," I sang, flipping back onto my front "Now leave me alone. Big boys have got to sleep you know," I teased him, waving my hand in the air and stuffing my face in my other pillow. There was the sound of him shuffling around a bit, then silence. For a fleeting moment of innocence, I thought he had left.

Than my bed disappeared.

"Oof!" I forced out as I hit the cold hard floor. My head ached, with the only sound reaching it was my groaning, and my brother laughing. With a growl I hoisted myself up with my elbows, and his laughing stopped immediately. He gulped, and tried giving me an innocent smile. Like that would work on me! "You're dead meat kid!" I yelled at him, scrambling to my feet. He yelped, and spun around so he could sprint out of the room. The soon to be dead boy ran through the small hallway and slid down the railing on the stairs with me following close behind. I could hear his little panting as I pounded down the stairs to catch him. Glancing back nervously he shrieked when he saw me so close to him. When I was about to grab him he pushed the rukh and floated in the air, just above my reach. Because of my miss, I slipped on the stairs and fell into our table, making it break in the middle and the chairs to go flying everywhere. I groaned for what had to be the millionth time that morning.

Having a little brother is okay. Having a MAGICIAN for a little brother on the other hand, sucks.

…

* * *

I'm not sure how long it took for us to actually get breakfast. See, we don't really need to eat too much where we are, so my brother thought it was pointless to try. But I said that I wanted bacon because it tasted good. He thinks I'm going to get fat if I keep eating for no reason. Was he kidding? He had to have been kidding. Have you seen me? I'm super strong! I work out! There is no way I am going to be getting fat any time soon. That kids just jealous because he's 8 years old and hasn't gotten rid of his pudgy cheeks yet. I on the other hand, look young and handsome at the same time!

 _You're not young. You're old._

"OLD? I am not old you jerk!"

 _Are too. Oldy oldy old!_

Grabbing a plate I threw it in my brother's direction, not surprised when he was able to jump out of the way in time. I keep forgetting that my brother can read my mind. _Come on bro, is nothing sacred?_ He just shrugged to my unspoken question and sat up so that he could take another bite out of his scrambled pancakes. That's what I call them. Even though we've been living on our own for our entire lives, neither of us can really cook. At all. I'm the worst cook I'll admit. I get it from mom.

It didn't take long for my brother to give up and make a loaf of bread with his magic. After he had finished gobbling it up he looked up at me with a big smile. _Where do you want to go today?_ I took a swig of goat's milk (My brother loves the stuff. Crazy, right?) As I wondered what to do. The option I wanted to pick was go visit some friends from other universes. That was always fun to do, especially if we went to some of the crazier universes. Brother likes the one that is devoid of most gravity. That sounded the most fun, as long as we weren't being hunted down where we went. Those guys in weird black robes and veils seemed to be able to find us everywhere.

But I knew that we had to do something at least a little bit practical during the day. "Let's go search for mom and dad again." My brother nodded, though I could tell he didn't like that idea. My brother wouldn't complain though. He knew that it was important, just as much as I did.

Leaning back in my chair, I put my feet on the new table that would probably be destroyed soon and glanced out the window. We didn't have what you would call a…traditional view. No forests or beaches or neighbors houses. Pff, you think any neighbors would stick around with how loud we are? Naw, what we got outside our window is a bit more…unique.

We've got a bunch of different universes outside our window.

Okay, okay, that probably doesn't make any sense. But that's what happens to kids like us. (Backstory time!) We were supposed to be born in a regular world, with regular parents and in a regular city. But see, we didn't get that. Our world was crushed and then put back together in a different spot. Leaving us behind. I'm not sure how old I was when I popped into existence. My younger brother is better with ages. I couldn't have been a newborn, because I remember crawling around. I'm not sure how it happened. I had the knowledge of how to eat, process things, stuff a newborn wouldn't know. Too bad I didn't know how to deal with all the alternate universes around me. I kept on falling into different ones randomly. Luckily it turned out to be a blessing for me. A few of the universes I went to helped me figure out how to live on my own, and when my brother came around, how to take care of him. Other than that though, it's been the two of us.

It wasn't until I'd gotten a djinn in a different universe that we were able to learn about the rules of traveling through the universes. My djinn is a time-space one. Lucky is, part of its abilities is to let us control which universe we go to instead of accidentally falling into them like we used to. It's a bit confusing still since it can also travel through different times of these universes too. Once we went to a little city with two brothers who were always trying to destroy monsters. They already knew us since in our future we'd visited them in their past. Very confusing, huh? Even though I'm really strong, cool, powerful, a vision of awesomeness, there are some things that I still can't do with my djinn.

One, we can't have too big an impact on the universe that we visit. If we do, we'll get stuck there. And in the state that we are in, so far we've only been able to stay in one universe without getting sick has been a few months. Two, we can't stay in a universe too long. We'll get sick, and when I say sick, I mean we'll start to fade until there is nothing left of us. Hasn't gotten to that point yet, but we'd rather not risk it. Three, we can't go to a universe that is too close to the one we were supposed to be in without being invited. That's because I'm not strong enough to get in, but also because of what some weird guy with long blue hair told me one time.

A day that I'll never forget though is the day we met some guy named Solomon. What mostly freaked us out was how much he knew about us. He knew that we'd popped in-between universes randomly. Somehow he knew my brother was a strong magician at a young age and I'd gotten my first djinn not long after I'd turned 10. (Again, ages are confusing for Me. was I 11? 12?) He also knew why the guys in black robes always hunt us down. (Apparently kids born in-between universes are high on al-thamens evil-market-of-darkness) He even knew who our parents were. Until that, we hadn't even thought that we HAD parents. We'd never had much of an explanation to us, but parents just didn't make sense. Wouldn't we have had to have met them? Solomon gave us the whole run-down though.

We had to find our parents. There were tons of versions of them everywhere, but only one world was the one that we were supposed to be in. If we didn't find them and help them fix a few things that had been messed up when their universe was destroyed, we'd be in trouble. As in, dead. We don't know when that's going to happen. Heck, we could die one day when we're eating breakfast out of the blew. So that's why we keep looking for our parents. WE don't want to die. Sure I'm not powerful enough to enter the world even if we did find it, but we still need to find it eventually.

Meeting our parents would be pretty cool to. We've seen different versions of them, but I can't help but wonder what THEY are like. If I ever met dad, what would he say? What would either of them say if they knew they had kids looking for them? They'd probably freak out. That's what I'd do. But would there be a chance they'd still accept us? Do you think, maybe, they'd be proud of us? Happy to finally meet us? Who knows? My brother talks about his hopes for meeting them. He's got big dreams of running up to them and giving them both a big hug. I'm a bit more realistic. We've got to face the facts that maybe they won't want us around. But it would be an adventure to find out.

Anyway, back to the view. If you were to give it a quick glance, it looks pure white. If you look closely though, you can see different images going past. Different scenes from different universes. They are too fast to really focus on any. With so many going by at once, the place almost looked like a very light rainbow setting. With my djinn I can cut through them and open an entrance to them. Sometimes I pick wrong ones, but over the years we've come to memorize which is which. Nothing ever really happens on them unless we're jumping through them.

That day was different though.

You can probably imagine my surprise when I was just carelessly glancing at the worlds, minding my own business, two people jumped out of them.

My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates. My brother choked on his burned bacon in shock. Two figures fell onto the ground, or the white surface we called the ground. By instinct, I grabbed my sword and my brother pulled out his two magic wands, lightning sparking at the ends. My brother can do lots of types of magic, but lightning is his specialty. Behind me my brother prepared to make our house disappear again. He knew the drill, take down one house, get to safety, then build another one when it is safe. Our first thought was that it had to be people from al-thamen. They were the only ones who'd ever made it there, and they were always hunting us down.

Only problem with that, neither of them were wearing black. One had blond hair, wearing a white, brown and black outfit with some kind of shoe thing on one side I just didn't understand. He had a sword at his side which put my guard up immediately. If I had to guess I'd say he was taller than me, but since I was tall for my age that could have meant he was a lot older. Maybe an adult? And why did part of his hair look like a horn? The other one had blue hair tied into a freakishly long brain and sticking out of the white turban on his head. He wore just a vest and some really baggy white pants. No shoes. Even my brother and I got shoes, and we just grab cloths from whatever universe we happened to be in last. This one was about my brother's height, but considering us being taller than average, that didn't mean much. They both looked fine, and very quickly, they started to pull themselves to their feet.

 _What should we do brother,_ my little brother asked in my head. It wasn't a question that should have had to be answered.

"We fight, obviously."

 **Hi everyone! Hopefully that makes their story a bit easier to understand. I'll try and post every week like last time, but it might not go that smoothly, especially with summer and school starting soon, ext. anyway, thank you all for reading!**


	3. Stranger's Invitation

Stranger's invitation

Do you have any idea how hard it was to get a djinn when I can't be in one universe for more than a few months? Do you?

Well, it was worth it.

Grabbing my sword, I put my djinn equip on in a flash. After years of fighting people with no preparation, I figured out that was the best plan was start with your best weapon. My brother hurried to gather his magic wands, but slipped them into his pocket right away. He was able to control the magic with his fingertips better, but it required less magio if he used them, so whenever he went into battle he made sure he had at least two. He wasn't too happy when I kicked down the front door however. _Brother! I built that door!_

"We're going to have to rebuild it anyway." Whenever we were attacked we ended up making a new house. I'm not sure why we kept trying. We didn't even stay in the house we built for very long. My bet was it was going to be destroyed by the end of the fight.

The two strangers were just starting to pull themselves up as we hurried over to them. The one with blue hair shook his head as he tried to get to his feet. My best guess was that he was a magician, since most people didn't have an easy time balancing in the 'in-between-worlds' gravity. My brother and I lived in it, so we were used to it. The stranger was able to look up at see us as we hurried over. His blue eyes were a different shade than my younger brothers, and the similarity didn't calm me down. Their heights were pretty similar too! When he saw us charging at them, his eyes widened and he hurried to put up a defensive field. I glanced at my brother, a plan forming automatically. "You got the short one?" Said short one frowned as his friend groaned, trying to get up.

My brother smirked. "Course," He said out loud. Blue lightning flashed from his fingertips and crashed through the shield easily. (He specializes in type four magic, lightning.) As soon as he'd broken through the shield it disappeared almost automatically, and he rushed through. The younger one jumped up to his feet, and when he saw us getting closer summoned balls of fire for defense. That's uh, when I stopped paying attention. I had my own enemy to deal with.

By the time I hurried up to him he had gathered his sword and was ready for battle as well. I recognized him as soon as our swords clashed. Alibaba Saluji. No matter what version of him it was, he always had that weird blond horn thing on top of his head. One version of him actually had blue hair, I think. In the universe that we were supposed to be born in, he was a prince of Balbaad. Sometimes he was a thief, a cop, once even an elf. In almost every version, he was friends with another man named Cassim, later grew to have connections with many people, often on the side against darkness, sometimes in a relationship with someone named Morgianna or Kougyoku, often had a more shy personality and allied with Aladdin. Huh. Aladdin. That had to be who my brother was facing if that was true.

Glancing over as we both jumped away, I figured out I was right. (Go me!) The younger one that was making his borg stronger while my brother attacked him had to be Aladdin. We almost always ran into him whatever universe it was, since he almost always had an outgoing friendly nature. The only one where he hadn't had one had been that universe where everyone seemed to hate the world. Course, me and my brother stopped going there very quickly, so who knew? As far as I knew he was the son of Solomon, the one who gave us all the rules. I didn't like Solomon very much.

The cloths that they were wearing did surprise me. Though Alibaba's didn't make any sense to me, I could recognize the time period and patterns of them. Aladdin's hat was hard not to recognize. If I was right, they were around the universe that we were supposed to be in. The time period was the same, and they had the same kinds of weapons. That was surprising to me. We'd been able to see a few memories from worlds like that, but never actually gone to them. Solomon told me that it would take a lot more power than I had to get to ones that were close to ours without invitation. That bugs me. How are we supposed to even find the universe we are supposed to be in if we won't be able to enter them till I'm strong enough? Whenever that will be. He didn't give me a level or anything.

Sorry, random thoughts. I get sidetracked pretty easily.

Turning my attention back to the battle, I swung at Alibaba again. He looked stunned, and barely had enough time to defend the blow. I slashed downwards, but he jumped out of the way. By reflex I assumed he was going to attack my side, so I hurried to revert my failed attack into a swipe at his legs. You know that saying, the best defence is a good offence? I take that saying to heart. "What are you," Alibaba tried to say, but I refused to let him distract me. When I sliced his legs he only narrowly moved away in time, and I tore his pants. He hissed when he realized how close I was to tearing his leg. Yes I had a smug grin on my face. Don't judge me.

Alibaba didn't look as happy as he stumbled back. "What are you doing?" he questioned in surprise, staring at me like I was insane. (Well, he wouldn't be wrong). "We aren't here to fight you!" Ha! Did he actually think I was going to fall for that? They had to be al-thamen in disguise, or working for them. Who else would have been able to find us? Or even know that we existed?

With a smirk I flipped my sword in the air, performing a few sword tricks to throw off his confidence. From across the white plain, my brother took a moment to glare at me. _Show off._ I shrugged innocently. He went back to making an ice soldier to defend himself against the sand soldier Aladdin had made. Still smirking I turned back to my own battle.

I blinked. I shouldn't have turned away.

In the instant that I hadn't been paying attention, Alibaba had put on his own djinn equip. He'd flown up a little in the air so I couldn't reach him, but instead of holding his sword out preparing to attack his hand was held out passively, his sword in his hand only for defense. "Please calm down," He tried to appease me. "We didn't come here to fight, um…boy. We came here to talk." I raised an eyebrow. He was persistent, I'll give him that. But we'd fallen for tricks like that before. I wasn't going to risk either of us getting hurt. Neither of us knew too much about medicine, and who knew when we would find someone who did? There was no way I was letting my brother get hurt like that because I wasn't cautious enough.

"I'll be the judge of that," I shot back. Jumping up I flew to his level. I aimed at my sword at his arm, hoping to disarm him. His swordsmanship was better than I expected however. The attack that was supposed to slice through his arm hit solid steel. A fire escaped the sword and I had to rush away so my hand wasn't burned. Oh, using his djinn was he? Well two could play at that game.

Swinging my sword I called upon its abilities. "Reversal magic," I commanded. My djinn was a space-time one, though my brother always likes to point out it doesn't fit. Apparently my type of magic is the 7th type or something? Strength? Whatever, I like my djinn. It lets me do cool stuff like turn other people's djinn's off. With my attack, Alibaba gasped when his djinn equip was stripped off, his regular cloths returning. In an instant he started falling in the sky, and he hurried to try and put it back on. After he fell a few feet he was able to, but just as he managed to get it on I'd caught up. One quick jab at his leg and he let out a yelp. Aladdin on the other side heard Alibaba's scream and stopped sending a column of fire at my brother, giving him the opportunity to cause an earthquake underneath him. Killing two birds with one stone huh? Nice.

Alibaba hissed, trying to ignore the trickle of blood down his leg. That must have been when he decided to take the battle seriously. Instead of trying to talk he flew at me and swung his sword lightning quick. (Ha, lightning. Just as I thought that my brother sent lighting towards Aladdin.) With sharp reflexes gained over time I quickly shielded his blow, reflecting it away and aiming myself for his chest. He jumped back, and I realized I might have underestimated his speed. Before I could try again he spun around so he was behind me and aimed a blow at my back. Holding my breath I hurried to parry the blow from behind, having a hard time with my arms around my back. If I tried to turn around, I would have lost my grip. For a moment it was a simple struggle of strength, battling to see which one of us could break the others control.

"I…Don't want to…hurt you…" Alibaba insisted, the heat of his sword giving me a sunburn on my back. Nest time I go into battle, someone remind me to wear sunscreen. "If you would just listen…we could explain," He grunted, his explanation making it harder to concentrate on the fight. Part of me was tempted to listen, just out of curiosity. Most of our enemies didn't keep the act up that long. I wished I was able to turn around and look him in the eyes without getting skewered. I'm pretty good and telling when someone is lying or not, but I have to be able to look them in the eyes. But since I couldn't, I would have to go with the next best thing. Fighting.

Since sword fighting wasn't going to help me, I switched to a different kind of fighting. Loosening my control on my sword, Alibaba feel forward a bit and sliced my back a bit. It wasn't enough to cause worry, but it stung more than I'd liked it to. When he stumbled I freed one hand and used it as balance, swinging one leg around so I could trip him. It worked, and he fell back in surprise. When he was about to hit the ground I jabbed my sword into the ground, or the other universes. It glowed, and with my orders the ground opened up underneath him. Alibaba couldn't even blink before he was sucked into it, the gap closing as soon as it had opened.

10 seconds. I had a 10 second breather.

What to do with 10 seconds?

1 and 2. I got up and surveyed my injuries, trying to catch my breath as I did. Only a few scars and scratches, nothing that extreme.

3, 4 and 5. Glancing up I saw my brother fighting Aladdin. It didn't look like he was doing too well.

6 and 7. I hurried over to the two of them, Aladdin's back to me.

8, I jumped up and landed a punch at the side of Aladdin's head.

9, Aladdin fell to the ground, only momentarily dazed. He was going to get up quickly, but it gave my brother time to gather his magic.

Then 10. My time was up.

Spinning around, I prepared myself as Alibaba resurfaced from the other worlds. He fell backwards, just like he would have if he'd fallen to the ground when I'd tripped him. For a minute he looked like he was in shock, trying to figure out what had just happened. I jumped at the opportunity, using it to rush over to him before he could get his bearings. Unfortunately, when he saw me he recovered faster. Shooting up to his feet he parried my blow with alarming speed, forcing a snarl out of me. "You're quick," I admitted, then cursed myself for doing that. Come on! You never complement the enemy! Everyone knows that!

Apparently he didn't. "But your strong," he replied, attempting at a smile. "You've got some skill." I forced my guards up. Was he trying to soften me up? I wasn't a fool, I wouldn't fall for that.

We went at it again, using pure sword fighting skill and tactics. From what I'd seen, he'd been trained by someone named Sharkkon in most of the universes I'd visited. Most of the time I practiced on my own, but I had been trained by a pirate named K. don't ask why his name is K. you don't want to know. He'd helped my mother out when she'd needed him in many universes, so in one I went to when I told him I was her son, he offered to train me no problem. From what I'd seen, both of us had strict teachers but different styles. Sharkkon was more official and traditional with his fighting compared to a pirate however. They were more often sneaky and underhanded, combining sword fighting with other types of battle despite any rules set out. I used that to my advantage, trying to get in a few hand to hand combat moves while he struggled to keep up. He wasn't trying his hardest, so that gave me an advantage. It went on longer than expected, parrying each other's blows and constantly changing tactics to try and get the better of the other.

After a while, we finally came at a regular sword fighting pose. You know, the one you see on those 1950's movie posters? Swords connected in front, pushing at each other to try and get the other one off balance while we glared at each other over our swords. In those old overdone movies, that's usually when either the sarcastic humor or dark threats are voiced. I'm more of a sharp witted kind of guy.

"SO this is the power of Amon, the fire djinn huh?" I smirked. "Make a dragon want to retire man." Alibaba looked at me like I was crazy, and I was reminded his world didn't have radio. "Never mind. 21st century stuff. You wouldn't get it."

He didn't seem comforted. "You and I have no reason to fight. It's not worth it, that's not why we are here!" Not worth it? That really depended on the person, didn't it?

"Oh yeah," I questioned him with a raised eyebrow. "What is your worth?" What I didn't know at the time was that line wasn't originally mine. Turned out that was something my dad said often when he was in battle. I didn't know that, but Alibaba did. His eyes widened in surprise, and I didn't notice him making the connection in his head. I kept on talking, oblivious to his reaction.

"We don't have the intention to enter recklessly into war. However" I spoke, half my concentration on keeping his sword at bay. "If an uninvited guest comes into our world,

"We will erase it."

Again, little did I know, that was something that my father, (Or a version of him) had said in battle. Alibaba was so surprised at the likeness that he took a moment to look at me. Really observe who he was fighting instead of going at it aimlessly. That's when he noticed something he hadn't before.

"You have…Sinbad's eyes…" The realization was such a shock for him, he loosened his control. A merciless grin spread across my face.

Taking advantage of his distraction, I made what could be considered dumb or smart, depending on how you look at it. While he was in shock I head-butted him in the forehead, sending him stumbling back in pain. My head hurt a bit to, but at least I was prepared. Snapping back to the battle I kneed him in the stomach, making him losing his breath. When I was bent down, I held onto the handle of my sword, and using all my strength, hit him on the side of the head. It was just enough force to knock him out before he hit the ground.

For a moment he tried to resist. Then he gave in, falling to the ground, unconscious.

From across the battlefield, I heard Aladdin scream, "Alibaba!" Swiftly I turned to him, and he stopped running towards his friend. A wicked grin spread across mine and my brother's face when a look of horror appeared on his. It was two against one. Still in control of my djinn, I slammed the hilt of it into the ground again. Its abilities caused the worlds underneath him to shake, and Aladdin struggled to keep his balance. That was all my brother needed to send a wave of lighting his way, coursing it through Aladdin. The boy screamed, but not loud enough to make me think he'd killed him. When he fell to the ground with steam rolling off of him, I could see he was still breathing. Probably just knocked out to. When we were sure he was out cold, we turned to each other.

I grinned. "Well. That was interesting."

My brother nodded. _Are you okay?_ I shrugged non-chalontly, trying act cool.

"Yeah, I'm good. You?" he nodded. "That was a pretty easy battle compared to the rest. We won that quicker than most." But that time, my brother frowned.

 _I don't know if we should have won that,_ my brother suggested, making me turn to him. _Aladdin wasn't fighting as hard as he could have, I could tell._

I frowned. "Him to? Neither was Alibaba." My brother pouted, trying to think.

 _Aladdin kept saying he wasn't trying to hurt us. I didn't believe him, but he was going easy on me the whole time._ Huh. Alibaba had to. Most of the time when al-thamen used that tactic, it was only one or two, so we figured out quickly that it was just a ploy. Never before had they tried that hard, or insisted on it the whole battle. I pinched the brim of my nose, annoyed that this one battle was so complicated. What an interesting day.

 _What should we do with them brother?_ My younger brother asked, using his magic to put both of them in the same place. I scrunched up my nose, trying to think of a solution. _Should we kill them?_ He only half joked. We'd never killed anyone, yet. But we weren't against the idea, if the danger was too real.

But I shook my head. "No, we have them knocked out. There's no need to do that." He nodded, using magic to make them both sit upright. With a flick of his wrist he made some rope appear in front of him, strong and thick. I nodded, seeing what he was planning to do. "We'll figure out what to do when they wake up." Again he nodded obediently.

 _Hey brother._

"Mhm?"

 _Our house didn't get destroyed this time!_

Well. There was a first for everything.

 _…_

* * *

A skill that we've gotten really good at over the years of being on our own isn't one you'd expect. It's not cooking (We definitely can't do that). Not guessing the weather or nonsense like that.

Nope. It's tying ropes.

When our enemies opened their eyes, both of them were tied together with some sturdy rope. When they tried to break free they only managed in hurting the other, so quickly they stopped doing that. We waited for them to come to the realization as we stood above them, glowering cautiously. Brother wanted to try and go with the good cop bad cop approach, but I said that was stupid. It would be better to strike fear into their hearts to make them give us answers. My brother called me a psychopath. He's just too positive about the world.

"What are you doing here," I caught their attention, making my voice louder and more threatening than normal. "How did you find us?" At the side my brother rolled his eyes at my commanding tone. Traitor.

Aladdin hurried to try and defend the two of them. "We aren't here to invade," he began. "My name is Aladdin, and this is,"

"Alibaba," I interrupted. "3rd prince of Balbaad, also called wonder man Alibaba, father of…well, that's not important," I hurried to say, seeing by his age it was unlikely he had any kids yet. "We already know who you are." Alibaba looked like he wanted to question that last part, but decided against it.

"You know who we are," he started slowly, keeping his eyes on the sword handing from my belt. "Then you must know that we aren't your enemies." But my brother intervened.

 _We don't know that,_ He said in telepathy, surprising Alibaba automatically. _All we know is facts about you. That doesn't mean we know you, or which side you are on. You could be a wizard who wants nothing more than to kill innocent muggles for all we know!_

Alibaba frowned. "Muggles?" My brother turned red sheepishly.

 _Sorry. Forget I said that._ I glared at him. With so many universes, sometimes facts from one we forgot didn't belong in another. We'd been doing so well up to that point at getting them right.

Confused, Alibaba tried to get the conversation back to one he knew about. "We aren't here to fight you," Alibaba exclaimed as he struggled against the binds. "We were looking for you actually." I didn't bother hiding my skepticism at that. Looking for us? No one came looking for us. Hardly anyone knew we existed. Alibaba saw my expression. "It's true! Honest!"

 _Who told you about us?_ My brother asked. _Where did you come from?_ Judging from the looks on their faces, I doubted they would be able to tell us which universe they had come from. They probably didn't know too much about other universes. Newbies.

"We, ah," Alibaba started, unsure what to say. "We…we are the only ones from our universe," he began, sounding unsure. My brother caught his breath, and both of our eyes narrowed. "Our universe was destroyed by al-thamen. It was a long time ago," he trailed off, trying to think. My brother looked hopeful, excited at the idea at finding people in a similar situation as us. But my muscles tightened in anger. We weren't fools.

Before he could react, I'd pulled out my sword and stabbed it centimetres above his head.

Alibaba turned pale, blond hairs that I'd cut falling down on his face. He didn't react. I knew what my face looked like. I'd seen it a few times in a mirror or lake. When I was angry, I could get angry. We'd been lost, forced to fend for ourselves for years, meeting people we thought we could trust but couldn't, constantly lost trying to find a place that we belonged. That wasn't easy on most people. I knew how to get mad. And when I was mad, I got scary.

"Don't lie to us," I threatened, leaning over him and forcing him to look into my eyes. He gulped, pulling down to get away from the sword.

Aladdin tried to defend his friend. "How would you know?" I turned to face him, and he gasped when he saw my expression. If looks could kill, he would be dead.

"Because we are the last from our world," I explained in a dangerously low tone. "And we know how it sits in our hearts. Don't insult us," I added, pulling back but keeping my expression the same. My brother didn't comment, a sharp look in his eyes that I wish he didn't have. He was my younger brother, a kid that I was supposed to take care of. If anything, I wish he didn't have the same pain that I was speaking of in his eyes. I would give anything so he didn't understand the weight of what I was saying deep down in his soul. He was just an innocent kid, one of the sweetest in the world. He didn't deserve it.

Turning back to Aladdin though, I was surprised to see the same look that my brother and I had in his eyes. An anger at the idea of losing his world been used as a lie, and the pain and loneliness you felt when having to experience it. "Alibaba may have been trying to make sure you didn't go attack our world like you did us by saying that," he explained his friend's actions for us. "But trust me when I say, you aren't the only ones who have lost a world. Don't assume you are." I'm a pretty good actor, so I was able to keep my face expressionless, but I was surprised. The Solomon that we'd met had said his world was going to be destroyed, leaving only his son. Was the version of Aladdin I was facing that son?

"…answer our questions," I continued, appearing to be unmoved. "Honestly this time." Alibaba nodded.

He began quickly, and I could tell he was nervous. Good. He ought to be. "We come from…well, I'm not sure how to describe it. We don't know too much about alternate universes. A magician named Yamuriha has started looking into alternate universes because of you two!" We blinked. I turned to my brother who looked just as confused as I was. Because of us?

 _How do you know us?_ Brother asked in confusion. _We've never been to your world before._ Both of them blinked at us.

"But…But they saw you," Aladdin told us, just as confused. "Uncle described you both perfectly. And one-saan backed it up. We were able to find you with the descriptions and magic! You left this behind before," he tried to convince us, trying to reach into his pocket. Out of curiosity, my brother loosened the bonds just enough so he could reach into his pocket. Out of his pocket he pulled out what looked like a lock of hair. Ew, who holds onto things like that? Yuck! But I recognized the light shade of purple. Turning, I checked. Yup, it was the same colour as my brothers.

Okay, that didn't really prove anything. I bet a lot of people had my brother's hair colour. And who the heck was 'uncle' and 'one-saan?' "What were we," I made quotations with my hands in the air, "Supposedly came to your world?" Aladdin looked to Alibaba for answers.

"I don't know the full story, but you helped the king of Sindria and the princess of Kou defeat an old enemy of their, Isnan." My breath hitched. Sindria? Kou?

He continued saying something about the battle, but I interrupted him. "Do you mean princess Hakuei and…King Sinbad?" Alibaba and Aladdin both nodded. My brother spun to face me, eyes wide. I tried not to get my hopes up. But our parents? In a universe that was similar to ours? We'd gone through many universes and helped out different versions of our parents, but not ones so close to home. Maybe they…

No. I couldn't get my hopes up. I'd done that before many times. I'd always been let down. The chances that their world just happened to be the one that we belonged in was just too small.

Interrupting my thoughts I noticed that my brother was using his telepathy on only me. _Brother, if they are really talking about us, perhaps it's us from the future. You know that sometimes your djinn mixes up what time we get places._ That was true. The in-between that we live in didn't distinguish between time, and we easily mixed that stuff up. It was why we had a hard time remembering just how old we were.

"Okay, fine," I relented, turning back to them. "Why are you looking for us? What do you want?" Alibaba shook his head, trying to clear their alibi.

"Nothing! We just used the lock to help us get to this place. We honestly didn't think we'd run into you two. We just wanted to figure out what's up with these alternate universes. Honest, we don't want to hurt you, and we just want to figure out how these things work." I stared at him. He wanted to be here? Did he have any idea how confusing this place was? Why would he want to leave his home, a place where he at least had a chance of belonging in?

I glanced at my brother. He shrugged, neither of us really feeling threatened anymore. "Brother, undo the ropes." He nodded, both of them looking up at me in surprise.

"You…You believe us?" Alibaba asked cautiously as my brother undid the ropes.

"Course," I stated. "That story is so ridiculous no one in their right mind would use it. So if you did and are sticking with it, it'd have to be the truth." They both frowned at that. But since we were untying them, they seemed fine. We helped them up as they made sure that there were no injuries.

"We're sorry that we frightened you," Aladdin offered. My brother smiled sweetly, his charming smile that could make anyone think he was a defenceless angel even after he had destroyed them.

 _Don't worry about it,_ he told him. _My brother and I are very cautious. We should have listened before attacking._ Well I wouldn't go THAT far. I'd bet my brother wouldn't either, but was trying to make friends. We didn't meet many-well, anyone friendly in the in-between. It was always enemies. He must have been excited, hoping for the chance of making a friend.

Aladdin tilted his head, observing my brother. "Have…have you opened your mouth when you were talking? Once?" My brother smiled with false innocence.

 _Nope. I have a hard time speaking regularly, so I mostly speak in telepathy._ Aladdin's eyes, impressed.

"That requires a lot of rukh control at once! Wow, I don't know many magicians who can do that!" My brother blushed at the complement sheepishly. He was always a bit awkward when taking complements. It was part of his charm I guess. He was the innocent yet smart one, while I was the charming strong one.

Rolling my eyes I turned back to Alibaba. "What are you going to do now? You uh…" I tried thinking of some new suggestions, but couldn't. I had no clue what suggestions would make sense without being sure about what universe they came from.

Luckily he didn't make me continue. "We're still on a mission to figure out these alternate universes. I guess we'll uh…try to figure all these things out." He glanced around at the walls of other worlds around him, only starting to see just how impossible his mission might be. Poor guy.

 _We can show you around,_ my brother offered, without my permission by the way. I was right, he was excited about people who weren't out to kill us. Or maybe he was impressed with meeting a non-threatening Aladdin who was able to get to the in-between. All the time my brother had always wanted to meet a magi. His power over the rukh was very unstable, different from other magicians. The only people who'd been able to train him had been different versions of magi. His favourite trainer had been an older version of Aladdin, I think. Or Yunan, I'm not sure. Either way, my brother was always excited to make new friends. _We know all about alternate universes. If anyone can teach you about them, it's us._ I glared at my brother who sheepishly turned away.

Alibaba noticed my reaction. "If you are okay with it, of course," he replied. "We're really surprised to meet you. We'd heard a bit of you, but not much. Sin had no idea who the heck you were. What are you doing here anyway?" I flinched a bit at the question, but let it go. A lot of people asked that when we told them where we were from.

"We ah…we're kind of stuck here. Our world was destroyed, and until we find the one that was recreated, we're stuck in here. We can only stay in one for a few months without…fading." Alibaba frowned, confused at my short description. I opened my mouth to give him some more explanations, but was interrupted.

"Why don't you come with us," Aladdin suggested. We all turned, eyes wide. "You should come to our world! You can tell us all about alternate universes! That is uh," He hesitated when Alibaba glared at him for being rude. "If you want to, of course." I pinched the brim of my nose in annoyance. Want to go? Really? We had no reason to go, we had our own life.

"We can't," I tried to explain, but my brother interrupted.

 _We can't enter a universe to similar to ours without an invitation._ Was no one on my side that day? I glared at him but my brother wasn't fazed. _Oh come on brother. We had no plans for today anyway. Why not?_ Then, making sure the others couldn't hear us he added, _besides. It's the closest we'll ever get to a universe like ours. We might be able to figure stuff out to find our universe._ I stopped arguing at that. He was right. I kept forgetting how smart he was under his naïve disguise. Who knew what we could learn? We'd never been to one like that. It might be the key we needed.

"Then we'll invite you," Alibaba offered, oblivious to what my brother had just suggested. "If you have our permission, would that be enough? To be honest, we probably wouldn't be able to get home without your help. We lost our contact with Yamu in that last…I have no idea where we were before we got here. It was the strangest place ever, and we were only there for a few seconds. When we exited it without Yamu's help, her magic connected to your hair probably is the reason we are here." Again, that thing was weird.

 _Brother, we have to do this!_ My brother insisted, confusing me. _Brother, this is the closest to our universe that we've ever gotten._ That, I'll admit, was a pretty big bonus. It was in the same time period, same weapons, and same people as the universe we were supposed to go to. We'd never been able to get to one with all that because I wasn't strong enough. But now we were being invited in. We were so much closer than we'd ever been before. The chances that the universe they were bringing us to were very small, but that didn't matter. We were so close. With this one universe, we were just that much closer to finding the one we belonged in. Finally, we'd have a place to call home. Even if these two were toying with us, they were still giving us the chance of a lifetime. We could figure out secrets and I could get stronger there so we could find our universe faster than before.

Through this one gateway, we had the chance of finding home.

 _Are we going to do it?_ My brother asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. _Please?_ I turned to our new allies who were looking at me expectantly. They seemed pretty honest. And they hadn't made any attempt to attack when we'd taken the ropes off. Next I glanced down at my brother. His big blue eyes were pleading, looking angelic and innocent as his lower lip quivered. Who could resist that look?

"Yeah," I gave in. "We're going."

 **I have been very lazy when it has come to my writing lately! And um…worse news? I'm going away again for a while. Sorry, no new chapter next week.**


	4. A Whole New World

A Whole New World

I'll admit, I was a little proud when just one use of my djinn shocked Alibaba and Aladdin. Both of them said they had never heard of or seen a djinn like mine. Brother just told me not to get cocky and to be sure to bring us to the right universe instead of getting it mixed up again. Look, I hadn't meant to interrupt that guy's carpet ride with his date. It WAS an accident. My brother doesn't believe me since I flirted with the princess that was with him. That was just my nature, okay? Back to the main story, as we walked through the portal I'd made to get to their world, I was feeling pretty good.

Until I fell flat on my face.

It wasn't that embarrassing I guess. My brother fell too, so he couldn't laugh at me. Both Aladdin and Alibaba were fine though. "What happened," Alibaba asked as he reached down to try and help me stand up. "Are you two alright? Did you trip?" He helped me get to my feet, but as soon as he let go I lost my balance again and fell into him. Brother wasn't having an easier time, struggling to sit up properly. Once he was sitting he tried to take the next step and stand, but as soon as he got to his knees he started wobbling.

Using Alibaba as a support I suggested, "I-it might be the different world. The 'in-between' has a different kind of force than most worlds, and we've lived there our entire lives. Our bodies have adjusted to that type of gravity instead of this one." I decided not to mention it might have something to do with us not really being born as well as having two dungeon capturers as parents. We haven't gone to a hospital, well, ever, but whenever we meet doctors they say there is something fishy with our bodies and physical form.

Aladdin decided to go all super-wise-magi-power-trip on us. "Here, this might help." He took out what looked like a staff with some leaves on the twisted top and waved it around in a circle. I saw what looked like some magic fairy dust trail behind it, but he stopped just as quickly as he'd started. Did anything even happen? "That's some gravity magic," Aladdin explained, "It should help you adjust to the gravity here quicker than if you had to wait. I'm not sure it will stay in effect if you go to other worlds," he made sure to add. "I don't know much about those." I was skeptical if it was going to work, but slowly I tried to stand, and was surprised to find I could. It was a little wobbly, but better than nothing.

It took my brother a bit more time, but he also managed to get to his feet. I noticed my brother holding onto his words in awe. Good grief. "Magic nerd," I mumbled under my breath. Of course my brother heard me, and he turned to glare at me.

 _At least I'm not a big history nerd. YOU insist on getting a history book in every world we visit!_

"Sh! No making points if they are against mine," I only half joked as my brother stuck his tongue out at me. And it's not EVERY world. Just a few!

That's when I realized we had an audience.

I got pretty embarrassed then.

They were all people I recognized. Not firsthand of course, but I'd met different versions of all of them. Not all friendly mind you. It was a few of the generals (Is that what they call them?) of Sindria, a few other kings and queens from other kingdoms, (That queen Mira was HOT) and a few princess's and princes from our mothers country. My brother looked impressed, and if I had to admit it, I would say I was impressed to. There was Kouen, Koumei, Kougyoku, Kouha and even Hakuryuu! They looked exactly like I had pictured them. Kouen was sitting in the middle, with Koumei, Kougyoku and Kouha on either side. I'd never seen them acting as they were supposed to in our past world, like royalty. The only strange thing was that Hakuryuu was standing with a different group and had some strange bracelet that he was fiddling with. Brother shivered a bit when he saw the general behind them that looked like a giant pig. We'd almost been eaten by a giant pig. Probably wasn't bringing back any good memories. But I ignored that fact. I mean, heck, those were my uncles, looking just like I'd always imagined them looking like. If I wasn't my great, super cool man I am, I would have dropped my mouth open like a shocked little kid. Or my brother, if that helps.

Then I saw my dad.

Of course it wasn't ACTUALLY my dad. That was just impossible. But he was just as I'd always pictured him. He sat straight, hands folded and with an expression that was calm and in control. His generals stood around him, all ready to react on his command. He wore Sindrian garments from the time period we would eventually come to belong in and many metal vessels as decorations. I could guess what djinn's he'd captured, but I couldn't be sure. In his seat he sat tall and proud, his muscles could be seen through the cloths. Of course he was handsome (He was my dad, duh) but I didn't pay too much attention to that. What caught my eye was the exact shade of purple hair that matched my brothers perfectly, and the same sharp golden eyes that I'd seen in my reflection time and time again. Every time I met a different version of my dad, I was able to keep my cool. Usually the versions were so different that I'd never had a problem distinguishing them as not being the one I was looking for. But this one…he was just so similar. Exactly like I'd pictured him. I'd always wanted to meet my dad. I'd run over in my head many times what I would say when I finally met the real one. When I had been younger it had been a hobby when I was hanging around in a dungeon to picture what it would be like when I'd finally met him. In one we'd met in the middle of battle, and we defeated the enemies together with no effort. In another, a crazier one, he'd recognized me right away and gave me my sword, even though I remembered getting it from a version of Sinbad that was nothing like the one I was looking for. What boy didn't want to meet their dad? I did, despite trying to act cool and saying I was just doing it so I could exist. And he looked just like I'd always imagined.

So forgive me for losing my regular charm and standing their like an idiot.

It didn't help that everyone was staring at us either. Kouen, to my surprise, spoke up first. "Hakuyuu? Hakuren…no…Who are you? Prince Alibaba…Magi Aladdin…what is this? And who are these boys?" It only occurred to me that we had just fallen in the middle of what looked like a treaty negotiation. Or war declaration. Or it was the middle of a movie set. I'd made that mistake before.

Instinctively, I shot up to my feet and pulled out my sword. The people around us looked startled, and before they could react I rushed over to my younger brother and put him behind me, turning to survey the crowd. A lot of them had weapons. Actually, scratch that, they all had weapons. I wasn't sure I would be able to defeat them all if they turned out to be hostile. Luckily they looked surprised, so I had the chance to get my brother and I out of there before that became necessary. My eyes narrowed, and my sword started to glow, preparing for a retreat.

Alibaba saw what I was trying and hurried to his feet. "No, no no! Wait, hold up, it's fine, they aren't going to hurt you!" from behind me my brother raised his eyebrow at him skeptically. I never looked away from the potential enemies. They seemed to have the same idea, all of them staring at me like I was on display. A few of them had their hands hovering over their own weapons. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sinbad's hand hovering over his sword. Or my sword, depending on how you want to look at it. Luckily he hadn't noticed that yet.

Turning away from us Alibaba positioned himself in-between us and the royals in front of us. Gutsy move. "Kings and queens, please put down your weapons. A few days ago, you asked me and Aladdin to go and search through the alternate universes that Aladdin learned about from Ugo. We just got back, thanks to…" he hesitated, realizing that he didn't know our names. Not alone with that bro. "Uh…These boys. I assure you they are no threat! Just…surprised." At me he tried to wave for me to put my sword down. I raised one eyebrow. Was he kidding?

"I'm not putting my sword away man. There's got to be at least 10 dungeon capturers in this room alone, and just two of us," I waved back to my brother. It took him a moment, but he hurried to form lightning around his hands, ready to strike.

Alibaba turned as pale as a ghost. "No, not that again! We already dealt with this, we aren't your enemies!" I pursed my lips, moving so I was prepared to jump into battle as soon as needed. Maybe we were gullible enough to follow him into his world, but once we were there, we didn't really need to follow him anymore, did we? I glanced back at my brother, and he sensed that I was preparing to leave.

Before I could put my plan (Or just random actions) into effect, someone at the side spoke up. "Alternate universes?" they all turned to face a women with one of those black hats my brother loves and long blue hair. "Aladdin, how did you get to one?"

The magi beside us blinked. "You sent us to it Miss Yamu." But 'Miss Yamu' shook her head.

"I was going to send you to an alternate universe once this meeting was ended, but we only just begun." Alibaba and Aladdin both looked confused. I felt a sheepish blush start to creep on my face when I started to realize what was going on.

"…what time is it?" Aladdin asked, suspicious.

"We just finished lunch."

"What?" Alibaba explained in shock. "We left after dinner!"

Oops. My brother glanced at me nervously, and I knew I had to say something. "That, ah, might be my fault," I wavered when everyone turned on me. I'd been the centre of attention in political situations before, but not like that. Sucking in my breath I held my ground. "My djinn can travel through universes, but also through different times. We may have…gone backwards a bit." No one said anything, and I squirmed uncomfortably. "Just uh…send the past versions of them back the same time as these ones left, and everything should turn out fine." _I hope,_ is what I didn't say. Still no one gave a reply, and there was silence in the hall. Awkward….

Thankfully, Kouha repeated his brother's question. "Who are you supposed to be?" I studied them all cautiously. They all looked just as agitated as me, a few crouching as if ready to pounce. My eyes trailed down to their metal vessels, then back to meet their leader's eyes. Kouen stared down at me, just as cautious and wary as I was. Our eyes took in everything, and gave away nothing, trying to discover all the secrets the other had without giving away any of our own. It was what some worlds called a 'silent showdown.' I could never tell who won in those things though.

I'm gonna guess that ours ended in a tie. "If you boys mean no threat," Sinbad began, and we all turned to him. Unlike me, he didn't falter under the pressure, or even flinch at everyone's eyes. "…Then we have no reason to harm you. Please put down your weapons, and we can discuss all this like civilized people." I got the feeling he was addressing not only us, but the rest of the kings and queens in the room as well. Already he had relaxed in his chair, a disarming smile on his face. Secretly though, I could see his hands that were folded on his lap were clenched, ready to attack if needed. Despite that, his whole being demanded attention, and his words couldn't be ignored. Even I'll admit, I was impressed by his tone of authority and how easily he was able to talk down not only us but a room full of leaders. Slowly the people around us began to shift back into their seats, lowering their weapons but kept glancing at us suspiciously. Good. They should be scared.

Once I was sure that we were, well, relatively safe, I lowered my sword as well. Brother followed suit, forcing his magic off and swinging his arms at his side. "We have no reason to fight you," I explained, careful with every word. "We were just…bringing these guys back." Reaching down I gently grabbed my brother's arm. "We'll be heading back now." Brother looked up at me with a panic in his eyes.

 _Already,_ he squeaked sadly. _But we just got here._ I was about to tell him, 'and we are just leaving, what's your point,' but got interrupted.

"Did you just talk?" Someone from another side, a finalist, asked in confusion. "But your mouth didn't move." Brother glanced at me to be sure it was okay to explain. I didn't see anything wrong with it, so I shrugged.

 _I speak with telepathy,_ He explained, stopping short when everyone gasped. All of them saw him talk without his mouth moving. Nervously he shifted closer to me, trying to hide his face as he flushed nervously. _I-I can't talk too easily._ I frowned. Even while he was talking telepathically, I could tell he was using his 'baby' voice, or whatever people called it. He always used it when nervous.

The pretty magician woman squealed. (We had that effect on women) "Oh my goodness, you can speak telepathically! That is amazing, what a wonderful use of magic, I can't believe-" She stopped abruptly when she realized she was the only one talking. Her cheeks turned a delightful shade of red. "Ah…I'm sorry." She lowered her head in embarrassment, and another man who I thought was Sharkkon smirked. Those two always had a rocky start to their relationship. Vaguely I wondered if they were together yet. Someday.

Their king Sinbad turned back to us, watching us thoughtfully. Alibaba and Aladdin had said that we had met them sometime in their past, which would likely end up being our future. I wasn't sure what we would, or had, done, so I didn't know if he would recognize us. The way that he smiled almost made ME believe that we were safe. Almost. "While we did not expect to have guests during our summit, that does not mean they aren't welcome. Stay for a while. I'm sure everyone here is curious to hear your story." The side of my mouth twitched at that. Stories? Oh, we loved stories. And we knew many. Heck, we could probably write a book.

At the other side, Kouen agreed. "Are you alright if we….ask you some questions?" When we'd first jumped in, he'd called us Hakuyuu and Hakuren. Versions of him had made that mistake before. Apparently we looked a lot like them. From how he was hesitating to speak, I wondered if he was still making that connection. Brother shuffled closer to me, grabbed the edge of my pants nervously. My brother had once told me that when he found our real home, he wanted to meet all of our family members. He'd made a list of all of the most likely members of our parent's family, which always varied since our mother had a big family. I could understand his nerves.

I was the eldest though. I couldn't afford to hide behind someone else. Straightening I tried to appear braver than I felt as Alibaba moved so they could see me completely. "I've got time to kill. Ask away." Maybe using the expression 'kill' wasn't my smartest move. No one spoke for what felt like forever. Gosh what I would do for a teleporter right then.

Aladdin tried to start things off. "Um…why don't you tell them your names?" Both my brother and I stared at him. Did he forget already?

Too late. Everyone was waiting for our response. "Well…we, ah…we don't really have…names." They kept their eyes on us, waiting for an explanation. "This is…my younger brother," I explained, putting a protective hand on his head. His hair was shorter than mine, making him look all the more angelic. "He's a magician, as you can probably tell." Yamu did her best to suppress a squeal of joy. Ruffling his hair I pushed him forwards, ignoring the look of complete and utter betrayal he shot me. "Go on brother, say hi."

I bit my lip to stop from laughing when everyone leaned in closer to see if he moved his mouth at all. His face turned a dangerous shade of bright red, like a tomato. _B…b-bonjour?_ He got so nervous he spoke in French. I doubted that was a language they knew of. _I-I mean, hello,_ He tried again, turning an even bright shade of red, (If that was possible).

"He's so cute!" Pisti (That was right, right? The short one with blond hair was Pisti?) Squealed in delight. Appearing to still be nervous he rubbed the back of his head and flashed her an innocent smile. We both had our own versions of charm, and they both worked. Pisti giggled all the more and her friends had to shush her as she gushed over his cuteness. That's my brother!

A larger man with a big beard and a scar over his face spoke up, seemingly unaffected by my brother's cuteness. "Where did you come from," He asked in a big booming voice. "Another universe?" He chuckled a bit and oddly, I decided I liked him. Despite his threatening appearance, I could tell he was a jolly guy. Don't ask me how. Call me 'super boy' if that helps you cope with it. "I was expecting something more…flashy for some reason. Guess jumping out of nowhere in the middle of a summit sounds good enough." I smiled along with him as he continued to laugh.

"Yeah, well, our universe isn't supposed to be that different from yours. There are ones out there that are really, REALLY different. But the one that we were supposed to come from is pretty close to the same. It ah…It got destroyed before we were born. There was an enemy from al-thamen who attacked our parents, and to fix things our dad destroyed the world so that it would be recreated and the disaster that had happened didn't happen. The only thing was since we weren't actually born, we got left behind. We kind of just jump through universe to universe trying to find where it was recreated." The way I spoke was able to ease the tension in the room a bit, but what I said made the odd whisper uncomfortable.

We didn't notice, but over at the Sindria's side, Jafar turned to Sinbad in shock. "My king," He whispered, but Sinbad shushed him. His eyes were wide two as he connected the dots.

My brother and I didn't notice.

Another one, some guy I didn't know who looked a lot like Spartos but wasn't, spoke up. "What djinn do you have," he asked, referring to me again. After seeing my brother also struggle, I was feeling better.

"It's a space-time djinn named Kira. It can help me travel through different universes and the time of them. Useful for battle too," I added proudly. What I didn't say was that Kira happened to be a very jealous djinn. I WOULD have captured other dungeons but whenever I got close to the end of a dungeon, he would transport me out of it. Jerk.

The people around us seemed impressed enough. "So you have knowledge of these…alternate universes that we wish to learn about." I didn't like the way that she worded that question either.

Putting on a charming, yet cautious smile, I nodded. "Yes milady." She frowned at my response. Guess that's not going to work.

"And your brother can form magic feats that most magicians can't. That is quite a dangerous combination." The smile washed off my face faster than you could say 'captain hook is a codfish!'

"…Yes…" I answered cautiously. I was worried with the way that they were all watching us. Like we were meat at the butchers and they were deciding if we had enough thickness or fat. Almost every universe we got this kind of treatment. Two powerful weapons with the potential to pick their side. Weapons that could change the side of a war against another nation with the knowledge and power we could get from any other universe. We weren't weapons. We were just kids. Their eyes never left us. I knew where it was going.

"We should go." Again, I grabbed my brother's arm, and he didn't try to object that time. He could recognize the signs just as well as I could. "Great meeting all of you."

Before I could even reach my sword, Sinbad spoke up again. "There's no reason to leave. You only just arrived, and I'm sure the journey was long." Well, that depends. Was he talking about actual distance or the effort it took to get there? "Besides," he waved towards all four of us. "It looks like you could all use some fixing up."

What was that supposed to mean? Glancing around, I got a bit of a hint. All of us still had some injuries from the battle before. But my brother and I had various scars and old wounds that we hadn't been able to fix. Neither of us knew anything about medicine, and any wounds that we couldn't find a doctor to fix we just bandaged up and waited for them to heal on their own. We didn't look very clean, I'd bet. Bits of dirt smudged our skin and our hair was messy. It was hard to find a time to clean up when we never knew where we would land. And our cloths weren't the best either. We hardly ever got new cloths, and what we wore was evidence of that. I was wearing a ripped up red tank top and muddy brown pants with a jacket I'd gotten from a universe that was in the 21st century. My brother was wearing a blue t-shirt with dark cargo-pants that had lost their original colour over the years, a grey cloak around him for when it got cold. Neither of our cloths were likely something that they'd ever seen before.

Alibaba put his hand on my shoulder. "He's right. Let's go get you two cleaned up." Both of them bowed politely to address the crowd, and my brother and I followed suit. We weren't sure which cultures bow to use, so I ended up putting my right hand over my left fist and going down on one knee. My brother put one hand behind his back and bowed with both feet on the ground. The people were confused, but we hurried to stand before there were any more questions.

"As for the information that these two boys may hold," Kouen added before we could leave. My fists clenched, and I locked eyes with my brother cautiously. What was safe to tell them? "…the Empire of Kou is already going to Sindria in a week's time to discuss a further treaty. Anyone who wishes to learn more about these two may come. If it is alright with Sinbad of course." Sinbad's eyes narrowed, but he nodded. I could feel the tension in the room like a knife to the heart.

Shivering, Alibaba hurried to rush us out of there. As he did, I whispered to him softly, "Wait, we aren't in Sindria now?"

He turned to me in confusion. "No, of course not."

"Then where are we?"

Aladdin, who rushed to catch up to us, gave me a smile. "A country famous for its history and culture. Welcome to the Laem Empire!"

…

* * *

When we were gone, there was a few minutes of private discussion so each country could debate the new information. At the opportunity, Jafar spun around to face his king. "Sinbad, did you hear his story?" He whispered in a harsh tone. Yamu, Sharkkon, Pisti and Spartos didn't understand, but Drakkon shushed them from asking questions.

Their king nodded gravely. "Yes. I heard the story."

"Then you know. Sinbad, those have to be your,"

"Don't," he ordered swiftly, cutting him off. "Don't say anything. To anyone." Jafar drew back, stunned.

"But Sinbad, if it's true, then we have to tell them,"

"No," he commanded stubbornly. "We don't have to tell them anything. Keep it a secret for now."

 **Hey, I'm back! This chapter took a bit to write, so it's not the best. I'm mostly excited for the next one. I hope everyone's having a good summer, and to everyone in school good luck!**


	5. Getting Fixed Up

Getting Fixed Up

Hospitals. I. HATE. Hospitals.

When they'd said they'd help fix us up, going to a place with a bunch of sick people and the gross scent of medicine wasn't what I had pictured. After a bit of wondering around and getting lost, Alibaba finally brought us to a big building painted a light brown with many different floors and a whole lot of people inside. I hated that colour. It was so plain and sickly it was as if the colour itself was the hospitals way of reminding people of the inevitability of death. There were doctors walking around helping various people, and I noticed a few of them were either smoking pipes or had snakes around their necks. Not sending a very good example to their patients. I'd learned a lot about worlds like that when I was trying to find mine, but I'd never really paid too much attention to the hospitals. I regretted that when everything inside me told myself to DESTORY IT! RUN FOR THE HILL! BLOW IT UP, ITS DEATH! And other stuff along those lines. Course, it wasn't as bad as those hospitals I'd been to in the 25th century. Those played awful music and had droids around that were badly painted with smiles that were too big. Thinking of them still makes my skin crawl.

After 7 games of tic-tac-toe (And explaining to Alibaba how to play tic-tac-toe), 5 games of rock paper scissors (and explaining how to play rock paper scissors), and about 13 minutes of idly drawing pictures in the wall with my sword, (And my brother telling me to stop drawing pictures in the wall with my sword) Aladdin came back to our group with a friend. Or two, if you count reptilian creatures. "Hey guys," He greeted us happily. "This is my old classmate Sphintus Carmen! He's a medical magician from my old school, and his family was sent here to help take care of their magi and work as doctors. Sphintus said he'd help us out as a favour to me!"

"I never said that," The guy disagreed, the snake on his neck hissing at his words. "Aladdin, you owe me for this. I can't just drop everything to give you and your friend's special treatment." Aladdin looked unashamed.

Alibaba shook the man's hand. "Thanks again for doing this for us. This is a…well we needed the best." His chest puffed up with pride at the suggestion, and instinctively I saw a weapon if needed. The man had pride. If I could use that to my advantage, I would have one less person to worry about turning on us. Doctors always freaked us out. Some said they wanted to help, then the next thing we knew we were strapped down to a metal table as they prepared to dissect us.

"Good thing you got it," Sphintus agreed, his grin a bit too wide. "So, where are these…special cases as Aladdin called them?" I frowned. I didn't like that name. Alibaba waved to us, and my brother and I stepped forward.

Putting on a charming smile I shook the man's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you doctor Sphintus," I made sure to add the 'doctor' part, changing my tone to sound more respectful. "Aladdin has already told me about how wonderful of a magician you are. I'm sure that we couldn't find a better doctor if we tried." His grin widened at the complements, and I knew I had him. Following my lead, my brother grinned up at him, trying to look as innocent and childlike as possible. No one could punch a smiling child. Aladdin tipped his head, trying to think of when he mentioned Sphintus to us, but didn't get the chance to ask.

"Got that right," Sphintus boasted happily. "So what are your names?" I hesitated. We didn't have names, but if we were going to be there for a while, they were going to have to call us something. They couldn't call us 'brother' like we did to each other. Usually in situations like that we'd just pick a name that we liked and used it if we had to give some kind of name. I glanced down at my brother, and he hurried to provide an answer.

 _We don't have names, but for now you may call me…Hakuyuu._ Gesturing to me he added, _and you can call my brother um…badr._ My eye twitched a bit, but I forced myself to keep the smile on my face. Who told him that he got to pick my name? As if he could hear me (Which he might have) He glared up at me. _Well YOU weren't offering anything. What was I supposed to do?_ WAIT? Sphintus didn't notice our argument. Instead he was staring at my brother in shock.

"Wha…how did you,"

"He speaks telepathically," I interrupted, starting to get annoyed at having to continuously explain. "Long story. Don't ask."

Sphintus gave me a look, but obeyed. "OK then…so, I'm just checking you two and making sure you're both in good shape? Is there anything in your medical history that I should know about? Old injuries or allergies or diseases?" Medical history? We didn't keep track of that stuff. How was I supposed to explain that one week I was stitching my arm then the next my brother got sick from eating all those cookies that said _eat me_ on the front?

"Um…we fight a lot…" My brother came to the rescue.

Instead of saying what I was thinking, my brother told him, _my brother and I don't really go to hospitals. We don't have any identification, so they wouldn't let us in even if we did go. Usually when we need a doctor we'll find someone we know from a universe who knows about medicine and ask if they would help us out._ From the way that the snake guy frowned at us, I'd guess he wasn't impressed with our medical record.

"Sounds like I got my work cut out for me," he mumbled with a sigh under his breath. "Follow me then," he told us, sounding regretful. "Hey Jasmine! Tell Titus that I'll have to meet with him later. I'm going to be busy." Then he led us through the waiting area and around a few hallways, probably heading to a room that would reek of DEATH. Or did not all hospitals have that? "Anyway, is there anything wrong right now? Any worries, or are you in good health?" I snorted a bit.

Two kids who have been living on our own the whole time. We were the Poster boys for perfect health.

As we had finished explained where we came from we got to a big room that, to my surprise, wasn't as dark as I thought it would be. It still was painted that sickly colour on the walls, but it had a few plants around to help mask the colour. The windows were up high and thin so that no one could see through. He had a table on the side that was covered in a disorganized array of potions and varies medical tools that I kept a wary eye on at all times. Across from it was a big metal table with a pillow on it, probable for patients to sit on. He had a bookshelf with old scrolls and books to hold medical files, and the wall next to it had some posters with nonsense written down on it, along with some magic scribes and other examination tools.

"Okay, let me start off by asking you two a few questions," Sphintus began, getting some paper and began writing things down. "Let's see…Badr, male, black hair, gold eyes…how old are you again?" Ah, I hated age. It's just a number, honestly! I'd gone this long without remembering how old I was, what was the problem?

"Um…somewhere between 12 and 14." Sphintus glanced up at me. "Most likely 14."

"What!" Alibaba exclaimed. "But you're almost as tall as me!" I smirked a bit. It felt good being tall. I decided not to tell Aladdin, who was my brother's height, that he was only eight.

Trying not to seem arrogant I added, "My mother's side of the family all grows up very quickly." Oops. That time I let my pride get in the way.

"Your parents," Aladdin asked curiously. "Who are your parents?" My eyes widened, and I slammed my mouth shut. Brother physically covered his mouth with his hands, even though he doesn't talk with his hands. Why the heck does he keep doing that? Honestly, it's pointless.

Sphintus spoke up in support. "That would be useful to know. Are they around? Or, no, you said you're from alternate universe…whatever. Are your parents alive here?" he was having a hard time putting his mind around the in-between and other worlds, I could tell. Not everyone was able to handle that information. At least he hadn't gathered a mob and started running at us with pitchforks calling us witches.

"Oh, that," I mumbled, trying to think of a distraction. "That's not really important…" I stopped when my brother started tugging on my pant leg.

 _Brother,_ my younger brother interrupted. _They'll find out if they do a blood test anyway._ I hadn't considered that. But still I hesitated. We had told other universes who our parents were in the past, and it hadn't turned out well. Some people couldn't take it, even if we weren't technically their kids. We didn't know the situation in the world that we were in, and perhaps even if they were able to take it, it might cause some tension and unnecessary problems.

"Okay, but…just don't freak out okay? Remember that we are from an alternate universe and what happens there won't necessarily happen here." Aladdin and Sphintus both nodded, but Alibaba let out a quick laugh.

"After all that's happened today, I don't think anything you could say would surprise me at this point."

…

* * *

"KING SINBAD AND GENERAL HAKUEI?"

I twitched. What did the words, 'don't freak out' mean to them?

Both of them stared at us with their jaws hanging open. "You're actually Sinbad's sons? Are you sure?" We both nodded. We were very, VERY sure. Alibaba had a hard time processing that. "What? I mean…How does that even happen?"

His reaction wasn't comforting. "Look, it's not that big a deal," I tried to explain. "It doesn't mean anything's going to happen here. We're from a different world, and some things that are fact in one world are different in others! We aren't YOUR Sinbad's kids, we're the kids of a different Sinbad! Your Sinbad and Hakuei could be arch enemies in this world and it wouldn't matter, because our world has different situations then yours. As far as we know yours could be the one that bill cipher came from!" They all looked at me with a blank expression. "Another long story. Just remember that it doesn't affect your world who our parents are. It's blood, nothing more." My brother kicked the ground bitterly. All the years that we'd been searching, and he still didn't like it when I said that. It was a fact, and it wouldn't change for a while.

Aladdin shook his head in surprise. "It's just…wow…that would never happen here! The two of them are just so…so different…Almost complete opposites!" A lot of people said that. I wasn't sure why. The versions that I'd met of them weren't THAT different. Oh, very different, I'll admit. But not opposites. Well, unless you count…and maybe that…okay, I get it, shut up.

"Yeah well," I shrugged, hoping to wash the whole situation away as quick as possible. "It's, ah…just some information to have around I guess. Not something to be talking about, or telling certain…people." _Like my parents,_ I thought, hoping that they would get the message. Though I was fairly certain neither of them were telepathic I hoped the got the message.

Sphintus didn't seem to notice. "Whoa…I don't know too much about them, but I've heard of them. Two important figures from two of the biggest countries." He looked intrigued, but shook it off. "No, I got to focus and do my job. I'm an official doctor after all!" Aladdin rolled his eyes, but I smiled and tried to act impressed to keep him on my good side. He coughed, clearing his throat. "Back to the main point, do either of THEM have any medical history that could tell me something about yours? Genetic diseases?" Did a crazy mother bent on taking over the world or half of your rukh being dyed black count? It would probably be best to not test that theory, so I shook my head. "Alrighty then. No genetic diseases known…Um…no known address…Mother Ren Hakuei…"I held my breath as he wrote the names of my parents on the documents. That wasn't good. Anyone could sneak in and take those files. Anyone could realize who my parents were, and know how dangerous the combination could be. And to make it worse, anyone could get to a local newspaper (Did they have newspapers?) or the local media and tell them. It wouldn't take long after that for the royal families to find out. What was the relationship between Kou and Sindria? Friendly? Could it be something that could be dealt with professionally? Or were tensions high? Could even the slightest scandal or sign of distrust send the two countries into war? That wasn't something I wanted to have to carry on my heart when I left.

Of course, just as it would be easy for someone to break in and take it, it would be easy for my brother and me to break in and destroy it.

Keeping any evidence of my thoughts unseen, I tried to look interested with a disarming smile on my face. When I really refocused on what was going on, Sphintus was writing my brothers information down on another piece of paper. "Purple hair…blue eyes…age 8…that should be good enough for now." As he slapped the papers down on his desk, I saw a newfound excitement in his spirit. He was smiling bright, and even shivering a bit with anticipation. "This is going to be a very interesting check-up." I didn't like the sound of that.

"How so," Alibaba asked before I could, surprising me. He sounded cautious to, which I appreciated. It was nice to know someone else was looking out for our wellbeing.

Sphintus didn't look like he was really out to hurt us. Sounded more like he was curious than anything. "Because I've never had a patient with these different conditions. You come from a place that no one has ever heard of, and have never been to our world before!" (I was starting to regret telling him that.) "And your parents. I mean, other than them being royalty from two different countries, there is the fact that they are both dungeon capturers. Do you two realize you are the first known children born of two dungeon capturers ever?" That surprised me. I blinked and turned to Alibaba and Aladdin for confirmation. They looked surprised as well, but after some thought, they had no arguments. Wow, first ones? Not sure how long that was going to last.

"That's pretty cool. First of a new generation. What about it?" Sphintus hurried over to the wall on the other side, picking up what looked like a glowing magnifying glass. I noticed some inscriptions on the side, but otherwise it didn't look like a weapon.

Tapping my brother's shoulder he gestured for him to move over to the metal table. "It means you might have different genealogy and biology then others. Most kids whose parents are dungeons capturers don't show any differences, but both of your parents are, not to mention Sinbad has captured many dungeons." My mother hadn't been a dungeon capturer in the past, but since she had been recreated, we would have been born as if she was, depending on what world she belonged to. I'd never really considered my mother becoming a dungeon capturer. Sure it was cool, but when she was with my father she'd never needed to capture a dungeon, since the only reason she'd gotten one was to help her gain more respect and power to help her country. When she was with him she'd already had enough respect from others, and she wasn't a power-hungry person, so it wasn't necessary.

I was fairly certain my mother wouldn't have a djinn. My father would have found her as soon as he'd gotten his memories back. I trust him enough to believe that he wouldn't have just given up. I couldn't wait to meet him.

My younger brother jumped on top of the metal table, and I was told to walk over to his side. Sphintus looked us both over. "Um…those cloths you're wearing look…weird. Do they have undergarments? I need to see if there are any physical problems or injuries." I smirked confidently.

"If you wanted me to take my clothes off, you should have just asked." My brother rolled his eyes. He used his magic to take off all his clothes other than his undergarments, while I had to do it the old fashioned way. "I always thought I'd get this request from a girl first, but the world is full of surprises huh?"

"Aren't you confident," Alibaba mumbled. I winked.

"Hey, if you need help getting a girl yourself, I'm your man!" Alibaba looked a little flustered, but lucky Sphintus came to his rescue.

But coming to his rescue was sending some attacks at us. "Oh man…you two really have some stories to tell." Yeah. That much was obvious.

As I said before, we weren't in the best shape. Both of us had scars and wounds from previous battles that we had fought. Sometimes we couldn't find doctors so we ended up stitching our wounds ourselves, and they didn't turn out so well. Neither of us really needed to eat when we were in the in-between, but whenever we left we still needed to eat. As you could probably guess, we weren't the best when it came to figuring out what was good to eat, what wasn't, or how much. Might have been poisoned from time to time as well. My brothers foot was bent the wrong way a little bit, not to mention that he couldn't talk properly. At least he wasn't blind anymore! We'd been lucky with that part. In fact, some of my injuries from the battle with Alibaba hadn't healed either. There were a few burn marks from that planet with 6 suns, some cuts across my back when I was thrown in a dungeon in the medieval ages, there might be a scorch mark of a bird or something on my back. That was a long story. I may have joined a rebel army once. Twice. Okay, a few times. On the bright side, we won. On the dark side, we may have started a legend about us, since we jumped around from time to time in that world. We weren't supposed to go back there anymore.

Sphintus shook his head regretfully. "When I woke up today I was expecting a nice, relaxing, regular day. I wasn't asking for weird, weird just came and found me."

 _We weren't planning on ruining your day!_ My brother tried to tell him, but no one paid attention.

Using his wand he turned on the magnifying glass, and the white glow around it turned a sickly shade of green. "Younger one…er, Hakuyuu, can you raise your arms?" My brother did, and Sphintus shone the light on him. My brother's arm turned green when he went over the arm, as well as both legs. His hands however turned a shade of light blue, and his chest and head became bright yellow. Sphintus gasped, surprising the rest of us. "Whoa…that's amazing!" I didn't like the sound of that.

"What's so amazing?" My brother smiled happily.

 _Me!_ Little fireworks shot off of his fingers. Show-off.

"He's right," Sphintus agreed. "Though, probably not the same reasons he's thinking." He brought the magnifying glass closer to his chest, and the yellow light around him got brighter. "This measures the amount of rukh a person has. I've never seen this much rukh in someone other than you Aladdin. No normal human has this much." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if that's the reason why you're able to use magic at such a young age…"

"And that might be why you can use it so easily," Aladdin realized, making the same connections. "You use telepathy to talk regularly, when most magicians can't."

"Is it because your parent's are both dungeon capturers," Alibaba questioned, "Or the fact that you grew up in the in-between?" By then I was starting to feel a little left out. I was from the in-between as well, and I had the same parents. Was there a chance I had a lot of rukh to?

"Hey, what about me?" I raised my arms and everyone turned to me. "Do I have a lot of rukh?" Sphintus blinked, and I think he forgot I was even there. Not taking it personally, not taking it personally.

He readjusted the magnifying glass and walked over to me. I closed my eyes as he shone the light from the magic tool over me. The light was too bright to look at directly, and even if it wasn't, I wasn't thrilled about being inspected. Magic always bothered me with the fact that it was so easy to discover others secrets, as long as you had the right tools and skills. We'd never considered that there might be a reason as to why my brother was so good at using magic. I wondered if I was affected by the amount of rukh I had. I probably had a lot. "Let's see…Badr, you have…" I waited with a smile on my face.

"Hardly any." My eyes popped open.

"What?" I noticed then that the light around my chest was red. From Sphintus's expression, that wasn't a good thing. "What do you mean I hardly have any? How is that fair, my brother's got a ton!" Speaking of him, when he was brought up he stuck his tongue out at me in triumph. I glared back at him and pretended to force-choke him with one hand. For a moment he went along with it, but not long.

Sphintus continued to examine the magnifying glass's readings, worry-lines forming on his face. "Sorry man. I don't know what to tell you. You've don't have any extra rukh, just the amount needed to live. I'm surprised you caught a dungeon at all, most djinn prefer people with lots of rukh." Glancing up he saw my face of horror and tried to come up with an explanation. "It could be that since your brother got a lot of rukh, you didn't get much. Maybe that's the effect of either the in-between, or two dungeon capturer parents." Was that supposed to make me feel better? Turning I glared at my brother once again. Using his magic (with the rukh that he stole from me!) He made a halo appear above his head and smiled innocently. So not fair.

Turning back to Sphintus, his brow was furrowed in concentration as he looked over something in the magnifying glass. "What's up man?" He didn't look up right away. The worry on his face didn't encourage me. "Everything okay?" He paused before responding.

When he did, he still didn't give me an answer. "Do you mind turning around for a moment?" I frowned. That was a strange request. But I couldn't see a problem, so I turned around. My back tingled as he ran the glass over it. He hissed in distain, making me shiver. What had I done this time?

"What's wrong Sphintus," Aladdin asked, trying to move around him so he could see the observations. Sphintus hissed and pushed him away.

"Don't do that when I'm working!" turning back to me he explained, his tone cautious and slow as if he was worried how I would react. "You should probably know…I don't know how these got there, but you have quite a few shavings and pieces of metal lodged in your back." Oh, was that all?

Alibaba gasped. "What? How did that happen?" I had a feeling I already knew. Just a month or two ago, we'd been running out of a burning building that al-thamen was using as their base. I'd been hit by some falling pieces, but walked it off. When we got to a safe place, we bandage them but didn't check for anything remaining. "Is he going to be alright?"

Luckily, Sphintus was able to respond quickly. "Well, from the positioning that they are in, he should be fine for the time being. But if he keeps growing they might stab one of his internal organs, then he'll be in trouble." Well that was an easy fix. I just had to stop growing! "On the bright side, they are pretty close to the surface right now. I should be able to cut them out in a quick operation." That didn't sound good. Just the word operation made my skin crawl. **Operation.** Guhh.

The others all sounded relieved however. "That's great," Alibaba exhaled in relief. "Can that be done as soon as possible?" I spun around and stared at him, making him snap his mouth shut. Who was he to make that decision for me?

"I can do it today," Sphintus replied, not seeing my reaction. "It would take less than an hour. I'll just need to prepare a room, find some sleep medication, find some nurses who aren't doing anything to help out," Whoa whoa whoa, hold everything!

"You want to do what?" I exclaimed, startling them. "You want to knock me out while you cut into my back? No way!" All of them stared at me. Even my brother looked surprised. What had he been expecting?

"What do you mean," Sphintus asked. "Of course you'll have to be knocked out!" I shook my head before he could even explain.

"No way. I'm not going to lay helpless and unconscious with a bunch of people I hardly know standing around me. No one is knocking me out as long as I have anything to say about it!" Sphintus's eyes narrowed, and I got the feeling he wasn't going to become my best buddy any time soon.

"You don't!" He exclaimed. "I'm the doctor here, and I say you need medical attention! Tough it out if you don't like it!" My eyes narrowed, and he halted for a moment. I had that effect on people when I was angry. Angry for me meant dangerous, and it showed as if I was a painting that was designed just to strike fear into people's hearts.

Growling slowly I replied, "YOU are not the boss of me. If I SAY I'm not going unconscious, I am NOT going to be put unconscious. IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU?" Sphintus didn't respond, his eyes had grown wide in fear. I'll admit, I was impressed that he hadn't fell over or started shivering or the other reactions I usually got. It meant he was braver than most. Or he just responded to fear in a way that others didn't. Either way didn't matter. I'd gotten my message across, and if he knew what was good for him, he wasn't going to object.

Alibaba interrupted before things got that far. "Older boy-Badr, there is no need for that!" he hurried to step in between us, gently pushing us both back a step so we couldn't reach each other. He'd put himself in-between all the royal leaders of various countries and I just earlier that day. Before I was thinking he wanted to simply stop a fight. For a fleeting moment, I considered he might be just looking out for me. Nah, couldn't be. "Sphintus, is there any way to do the operation without having to knock Badr out?" Sphintus returned to his senses, and he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Of course it is POSSIBLE," He expressed, sounding exasperated. "But in theory, just about anything is possible! We knock our patients out so that they don't experience the pain of us cutting into them," He enunciated the last few words to try and get his point across. I didn't flinch. "And we can't have the patient moving while we are operating! Even just a flinch could be dangerous. I don't think I have enough control to operate on a person who is awake!" The way he was glaring at me was like he actually expected those reasons to change my mind. If it wouldn't come back to haunt me in the future, I wouldn't have even been considering doing the operation at all. But since I was, even with his reasons, there was no way, no way in ANY universe was I going to put my life in the hands of strangers. Who knew what they would do if they decided to turn on me. My brother was strong, but could he defend himself and me if we got in trouble? I would never risk my brother getting hurt because of me. I couldn't live with myself if that happened.

"So all I've got to do," I concluded, and everyone turned to me again, "Is not move? I can do that." Sphintus stared at me like I was an idiot.

"It's not that simple! You can't move whatsoever! Not even a tiny flinch, you have to stay absolutely still! If you move even a bit the knife might flinch and cut a vital artery! You would have to stay still while I am cutting into your back to get out the, in case I didn't mention, MULTIPLE pieces of debris! Can you seriously expect me to believe that you'll be able to stay still while I get those out of you?" The cocky smirk returned, the right side of my mouth tipping up and I narrowed my eyes darkly.

"Yes." That shut him up. Once I was sure he was going to remain silent, I turned to the others. Aladdin and Alibaba were both staring at me with uncertainty, wondering if they should try and convince me to change my mind. Even my younger brother was watching me nervously.

"Don't worry guys. It's a good plan!"

…

* * *

"I regret everything about this plan."

The next thing I knew I was sitting on the edge of a table in the middle of a dark room lit with candles. My brother, Aladdin and Alibaba were standing in front of me, all of them looking worried. They'd made me take off my shirt and washed me clean. (It was freezing by the way) Sphintus had marked the spots where he had to cut with bright red paint, and in white paint he put some magic spells around it to help me stay still and ease the pain. At my right was a table that had a few knives and magic potions and you'd have to ask my brother about if you wanted to know what they were. There were two nurse magicians, one boy and one girl, standing at the ready to help Sphintus out if needed. He was bringing in a few more candles, cursing why the surgery room had to be so far underneath the building. At the time, I couldn't agree with him more. I was freaked out. It looked like they were going to cut me open to summon some kind of monster. If they were, it'd better be a good one.

Alibaba came over to me, trying to look calm but failing. Anyone could see the worry behind that fake smile. "So…How do you feel?"

"Like I'm being sacrificed to the readers of this fanfic."

"What?"

"Nothing." He looked at me like I was insane but let it pass. It wouldn't have taken much to convince him of it anyway. Glancing over he turned his attention to Sphintus who hurried over to them. When he came over Alibaba walked closer and whispered something that I couldn't hear. If I had to guess, probably something along the lines of 'is this really safe?' Sphintus's annoyed shrug didn't really help my confidence.

My brother walked over to me and gave me an encouraging smile. _You could try just letting them knock you out. It would be easier._ Was he insane? When he saw my expression he sighed. _Never mind. I'm sure you'll be fine._ How encouraging.

"We're ready," Sphintus called, walking up behind us. I could imagine his worried face as I heard him take the knife. "Are you sure you want to do this? You can't move at all, not even flinch. If you do I might cut something that shouldn't be cut. This would be a lot safer if you weren't awake." But all his advice did was make me narrow my eyes in distain. Safe? Being safe was something I never had the chance to get used to. There was no point in starting then.

Straightening my back I ignored his last words. "I'm ready as I'll ever be." Sphintus glanced over my shoulder at Alibaba and Aladdin, pleading with them to make me change my mind. But neither of them said a word, and Alibaba nodded at him to begin. There was a long sigh, and I shivered when his breath crawled on my back. I probably wasn't inspiring any confidence in my ability to keep still. I felt the cold blade meeting the red paint, and I clenched my hands on the side of the table to steady myself. There was a moment of agonizing silence as I waited for the blade to make the first incision.

There was a slice as he cut through my skin.

I gasped, and had to bite my teeth together to stop from moving. As soon as he'd made the first cut, he worked fast so that he could get it out as soon as possible. I felt the first trickle of blood spill down my back, cold and chilling. He cut in deeper, and I tightened my hands on the table. It was a wonder that thing didn't break. Aladdin gasped, and I guessed that my pain was visible on my face. I tried for a smile, but when I did he sliced another part of my back and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from screaming.

 _A-are you okay brother?_ I glanced down at my brother, and was surprised to see he looked calm and composed. He was the emotional one of the two of us, the more compassionate. I'd been expecting to see him worried and fretting and panicking over the whole operation. I'd even pulled Alibaba to the side to ask him to take my brother out of the room if he thought he couldn't take it. Then I noticed his hands in fists, shaking at his side. He was trying to stay calm for my sake, doing his best to look like nothing was wrong. That wasn't right. I was the older one, I was the one in charge of making sure that he was alright and feeling safe. Not the other way around. He shouldn't have to act calm for my sake.

Forcing on a smile I replied, "Yeah, all's good." My voice sounded so convincing, I almost believed it myself. Aladdin and Alibaba weren't as calm as my brother, both of them cringing when they realized they had to sit back and watch. As the operation went on the sound of cutting and slicing started to make me sick, not to mention in pain. Aladdin couldn't take it for very long and had to rush around behind me to see if he could do anything to ease the pain. The gasp I heard when he saw my back didn't make me feel any better.

Desperately I tried to keep the smile on my face while I thought of something to distract me. "A-anything I should know about in this world?" Alibaba shot up, surprised I had addressed him. When he figured out what I was doing he hurried to talk.

"W-well it depends on what you want to know. Right now there are a few problems in fighting al-thamen. Right now Hakuryuu-that's Hakuei's brother- is under my care because he tried to take over Kou a while ago and caused a lot of damage. They were able to sort everything out, but only barely. The relationship between Kou and Sindria is very strained right now because Sinbad had sided with Hakuryuu. Because of the state that Kou is in, they couldn't do anything to Sinbad, and Sinbad is upset he didn't gain control of the empire. Right now since we don't know what al-thamen is planning, the main concern for all the countries is to try and find a way to get the two countries to get along. They are 2 the strongest countries up to date, and if the two of them can't work it out it may cause a war that every country will be involved in one way or another." What he told me caught my attention enough to make me almost forget that there was someone cutting into my back. Sindria and Kou were fighting against each other? Two sides of my family? No, I forced myself not to think about it like that. They weren't my family. They were just different versions of my family. I had no right to try and get involved. Seeing my brothers reactions to his words though, I had a feeling it would be a harder task trying to convince him of that.

"What makes things worse is that Sinbad is in charge of Hakuei right now." That got my attention.

"What?" I exclaimed, startling the people around me. Sphintus cursed, and hurried to get back to work. When he did, the cuts were deeper than before, and I winced in pain. "B-brother, can you give me something to bite into?" Brother's hands were trembling, but he nodded. With a wave of his hand a gag was put around my mouth, and it was thick enough for me to bite into.

Once I had regained my bearings I nodded at Alibaba to explain. He looked concerned, but decided to remain strong and act as ordinary as he could. "After the civil war in Kou had been settled, the countries agreed that those who were in charge of all the suffering should be punished. Sinbad convinced the council that instead they were just as influenced by al-thamen as anyone else, and thought they should be made to pay for their crimes, they shouldn't be too harsh. Instead the guilty parties were given bracelets so that someone else would be in control of what they did so they didn't try to cause any more trouble, as well as being sent away from their country until al-thamen was destroyed. Hakuryuu was sent to me, Judal was sent to Yunan the magi and Hakuei was sent to Sinbad in Sindria.'

'She wasn't actually a part of the uprising. She'd tried to stop her brother from getting killed but hadn't done anything to harm others. ( **In this version she didn't meet Sinbad or work with him.)** But because she was Hakuryuu's sister and al-thamen's leader was her mother no one in her country trusted her anymore. People were thinking she wasn't trustworthy and could be working for al-thamen undercover. So because of that they sent her to Sindria." That was all fine and dandy, but that didn't concern me. What did was that Sinbad and Hakuei were in the same place.

"Mm, mmfmff," I tried to speak through the gag. Brother waved his hand again and it disappeared. "I mean, was that the first time that they'd met? Sinbad and Hakuei?" Alibaba had to take a moment to think about it.

"Well…I don't know Princess Hakuei to well personally…and Sinbad is a very secretive person…But from what I could tell, it seemed to me like they'd never met before. Hakuryuu had contacted his sister a while ago on her birthday, and it sounded like the two of them didn't get along to well." My spirits died, and I hung my head.

"Oh." I sighed as my brother made the gag return. Stupid me for getting my hopes up. I'd thought there might be a chance that the world I had come to was the one I was looking for. But if that was the truth, it couldn't have been. My father was supposed to get his memories back when he was younger than when I'd seen him in the throne room. There was no way my father wouldn't have done anything for that long with Hakuei still around. He would have tried to get her back and get her memories back as soon as he'd remembered. I was sure of it. If he hadn't, that meant that the world I was in wasn't my world.

My vision getting fuzzy quickly brought me back to the reality of the situation. I squeezed my eyes shut as Sphintus quickened his pace. He was going as fast as he could, but it still felt like forever. Alibaba continued to explain the world we were in to try and distract me, but it wasn't helping anymore. Brother was having a hard time keeping his composure, and I could see the worry in his eyes. Aladdin was helping the most actually, continuing to make charms to ease the pain. The only problem was that he wasn't a medical magician, and the few charms that he made would go away almost as quickly as he made them. With my hands clenched and my teeth gnawing into the gag, I tried to not think about it. I was fine. There was nothing hurting me. Stay calm. I was a statue, perfectly fine. Unmoveable, stone cold-

"We're done." I let out a loud exhale and fell over on my side.

My brother yelped and hurried over to me as Sphintus and Alibaba moved me onto my front so the nurses could come and fix up the wounds. It made me uncomfortable having all those hands on me when they weren't a group of pretty girls who wanted my attention. _Are you okay?_ Brother asked nervously, poking me to keep me awake. That wasn't helping.

"Yeah," I forced out with a lopsided smile. "All's good. Let's get out of here."

"You're not done yet," Sphintus interrupted, catching our attention. "Now that I've dealt with the serious problems, I've still got to do the checkup. When we finish here, we're all heading back to my office."

I groaned. It was going to be a LONG day.


	6. Dress Like Royalty

Dress like royalty

If what they did to us was what some people would call 'pampering' then I want no part of it.

I have never felt so…so VIOLATED in my entire life. It was like I had gone through a washing machine, been tinkered with like a robot, then went through a waterfall, and finished by a big bottle of powder being dumped on me. In reality, it wasn't like that. I'm pretty sure they didn't have washing machines. First after they washed off and sewed up my wounds (I prefer to patch up my own wounds, but apparently that's not 'procedure.') they decided to give us a complete clean. They used spells to make some of the scars that were minor go away, straightened us with magic that was very painful by the way, tried to fix our posture and way we walked. (We fell on our faces so many times they had to use magic to get rid of the bruises.) Then they made us eat a WHOLE lot, not all of it was good, to try and make up for our problems with foods, not to mention made me promise to make sure the two of us stuck to the food diet they gave us. (Yeah right.) We drank some potions, were scrubbed cleaner than a rack of dishes and in the end topped off with being dried with scratchy towels and given plain white cloths to wear. They'd kept my sword, but the rest apparently wasn't 'appropriate.' Geeze.

I'd tried to reason with Sphintus during the whole ordeal, but he refused to let them stop. "Whether you two are from this world or not, you're both still princes of two of the greatest countries on earth. In case anyone else finds out, you'd better look like it." What the heck did it mean, 'look like a prince?' we'd met princes whose main clothing style was animal furs that they caught themselves.

My brother didn't seem to mind it however. _I've never felt so clean!_ He laughed, hugging himself and spinning in a circle. _Look brother! I'm shining like a star!_ He hopped up and down happily, and when he did little stars and flames appeared instead of a footprint. I laughed when Sphintus scrambled to put the flames out before they spread. That's my version of revenge.

Aladdin frowned at our appearences however. "What happened to their hair?" Last I'd checked, nothing. Confused, I turned to face a mirror on the wall. I was surprised to see my hair had been cut shorter. It was still pretty long, midnight dark bangs nearly covering one eye and its own rebellious style. But it was combed neatly and tamed just a bit so it wasn't sticking out form place to place. Even my earrings were visible, and they were just a few small rings! Only then did I notice that my brother's hair was cut short as well. His purple hair was cut much shorter, it could almost stick up by itself. When had they done that? Just another reason to hate hospitals.

Ignoring Aladdin, Sphintus gave us a quick once-over again. "Well…I guess you look okay…" OKAY? What more could he do? No, wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know. "Fine you'll do. But we're going to need to do something about those cloths." I bit my lip. I'd been told by various people I'd visited that saying, 'And whose fault is that,' was rude. "I'd bet they have some fashion of royal cloths in the palace. Probably some tunics or something,"

"How about we just go look in town," Alibaba interrupted before I got the chance. "There are many different kinds of culture in the market of the Parthevia Empire. You two can pick whatever you think is comfy." Sphintus looked annoyed with his interruption, but decided to leave it alone. I on the other hand, raised my eyebrows at him. What did he care about what cloths we got? Shopping for them would take a lot more time than simply going to the palace. Sure, I didn't WANT to wear those cloths, they didn't look to comfortable. But I never complained about free stuff. At least, I think we weren't paying. I didn't know the currency there.

Luckily that wasn't a problem. "If we go shopping, than Sphintus is going to have to come to pay," Aladdin informed him.

"WHAT?" Sphintus exclaimed. "I didn't agree to this!"

Aladdin turned to him, a little pout on his lip. "But Sphintus-kun, don't you want to make sure they look like princes?"

"Not THAT much!" My brother and I glanced at each other.

He persisted, "But they are sons of two dungeon capturers as well as from a world this countries never heard of. Don't you want to be one of the first ones to be able to learn about them and what they know?" How that translated into buying us cloths, I wasn't sure. But Sphintus hesitated for a moment.

It was just a waste of time. "Look, this isn't necessary. I'm a pretty good gambler, I'll go get us some credits." All but my brother turned to stare at me. I wonder what I had said wrong. Was it the credits?

"You're fourteen," Alibaba informed me, "And you can gamble for money?" I shrugged. Living in between worlds wasn't the best way to get money. Sometimes we made friends who helped us or did various jobs. But in worlds where we couldn't do that, I'd had to get us money somehow. But Alibaba shook his head stubbornly. "No, don't do that. I'll pay, I've still got a lot of money left over from when I was a gladiator, so I'll pay." This made my brother run up and hug him in glee. I on the other became more cautious. Was he trying to get on our good side? Become our allies, or make us owe him? He had no reason to do that for us, so why the heck was he?

Being the kind of person that I am, I confronted him right away. As soon as we left I let Aladdin and my brother walk ahead so I could get him alone. "What are you doing," I whispered. He blinked, looking so innocent I'd almost believe he took lessons from my brother.

"Going to the market?" I glared at him. "I don't know what you mean b...Badr?"

I waved a hand to let it go. "Just call me that for now. I mean why are you buying us cloths?" This didn't make it any easier for him to answer the question.

"Because you need them."

"No!" I exclaimed a little too loudly, glancing over to make sure my brother couldn't hear me. He didn't need to worry about what I did. Keeping my tone down I persisted, "Why didn't you just let Sphintus bring us to get some of the royal clothes they had in the palace? What do you care what we wear?" As understanding lit his face, a calm smile appeared making my temper rise. Why did he get to keep calm while I was ready to bolt?

"Did you want to wear what they were offering?" I didn't respond. Alibaba shrugged, trying to calm me down. "Hey, I just wanted to help you out."

"Why," I insisted, surprising him. "Why do you care? We're going to tell you what you want to know, what does it matter to you if we're comfy?" Alibaba paused, taking a moment to think about it. Maybe he himself didn't know why he had done that. But after a moment, he came up with an answer that was pretty hard to argue with.

"I suppose that when I was in a situation like yours, I would have wanted the same thing." My face must have shown my confusion, because he went on to throw his hands up in the air. "I don't know. When we were in the hospital I got to thinking,"

"That you should have saved us from those doctors before they even got started?"

He laughed sheepishly. "Anyway, I was seeing all the data that they got on you. How your level of control on your djinn is greater, your brother's level of magic, Sphintus talking about how he'd never met kids like you before. I mean, you are princes of two different countries, sons of two dungeon capturers, traveled through worlds daily, know tons about things we've only barely come to grasp, and I realized…" As he continued my spirits fell, and it was as if my emotions went onto the basic modes. Uncaring, trying to distance myself from whatever he said. It's what I always did when people started focusing on those things. I wouldn't let myself get attached to someone who could end up seeing me as a useful pawn. Whatever. Who cared what he thought of me? He was just another person who we'd never see again as soon as we left.

But what he ended up saying got to me.

"…That you two probably never had a normal day in your life." I blinked.

What?

Seeing my face he explained, "You and your brother have done a lot I'd bet. Not only do you have to live the lifestyle that you do, but you have all those expectations and added qualities along with it. Your power you probably increased on your own, but the rest of the stuff wasn't your choice. You didn't choose to live that way, or who your parents were. All the stuff you learned was just stuff you needed to know, you probably didn't think too much of it at the time. At least, that's what I'd assume," He added, fidgeting nervously. He didn't strike me as someone who was overly confident in himself, and it showed by how he moved around and seemed to scramble for words. "That's not how a 12-14 year old should live. I doubt it's easy. So I just figured, you know," he hesitated, not sure how to continue.

"I…I grew up not knowing I was a prince, and when they finally found me it was very…overwhelming. Everyone forced these expectations on me, and the stuff I knew about was either to wise or unimportant. A good clean and a pair of clothes changed who I was completely, according to them. After that everything I did was under careful watch, I couldn't make mistakes, I had to be perfect and amazing. I could hardly take it. And I saw it happening to the two of you, who haven't grown up in royalty either, being forced to act in a way I wasn't used to. When I'd been there, I'd wanted someone to tell me it was okay to be who I was raised as. The way that you grew up was different than anything we could imagine, but I just thought…you'd probably want the same thing. Going from that to a prince would be overwhelming for anyone."

I stared at him. For the first few moments, I waited for him to change his facial expression, to show some kind of physical evidence of guilt or a lie. Not only was I a good liar, I was good at spotting lies to. But he kept that aggravatingly sincere and innocent expression on his face. I didn't know how to deal with that. People who were honest as well as cared about us were hard to come by. Sure, some people could be honest. Others can care. But both in one? That was rare. It made it hard to believe when it actually happened.

Eventually I decided, _heck, why not? How bad could he be?_ So instead of criticizing him, I put on a charming smile. "Well, thanks for looking out for us. I appreciate it."

His smile was bright. "Your welcome. Come on, let's catch up to the other two before Aladdin starts stealing some watermelon." Trying to lighten the mood he slapped me on the back before starting to walk. To be safe, I let him walk ahead. But I didn't keep watching him out of the corner of my eyes.

When we caught up to Aladdin and my brother, they'd already found a store to search through. It was called a 'multinational shop' and supposedly had different styles from all over the world. I don't know what they had in their world, but I saw no leather biker jackets or cowboy boots. What a waste of good fashion styles. _Brother, do you think I could get some bouncy shoes?_ He asked me with hope in his eyes.

"Uh, I don't think they have those brother." His face fell faster than the London Bridge.

 _Why did we even come?_ He wailed, and I hit him on the head.

"Don't be rude! They are trying to be nice, you know that! When was the last time we went shopping to get new cloths?" He sent me an 'are-you-for-real,' look. My sassy attitude was rubbing off on him.

 _We never went shopping for clothes. We either steal them, are given them or…one of us goes and buys whatever we think would fit the other._ As he realized this his frown deepened. _Um…Would it have been better if we just let them pick our cloths? If we've never done this before, is it really good for us to be here?_ I raised my eyebrows as we walked past some of the biggest fur coats I'd ever seen.

"And miss the chance to pick our cloths for the first time? Besides, better to learn now than never." Brother didn't look as excited as he did before. He probably didn't want to look like a fool in front of who he probably considered his new friends. Why did he get embarrassed so easily? Come on, who cared if they thought we were weird? Lots of people thought we were weird, and it never bothered me. I knew he was my brother, but sometimes it was like I'd never understand him. That worried me. I was the one who'd raised him, and he still surprised me. Was that normal? His safety was in my charge, so I hoped that was normal.

From another room Aladdin called, "Hey! Over here!" Perking up, my brother hurried to the back room, me slowly following on his heels. We came to a back room that was connected to a bunch of smaller rooms. Aladdin had gathered three helpers, all wearing extravagant clothing and makeup in different colours for each of them. One with blue hair wore clean official makeup, another with darker skin and red hair wearing green makeup and the shorter one with striking purple eyes had yellow makeup. "Pisti brought me here one day before the big summit, and these three know her personally. Badr and Hakuyuu, meet Sakura, Totsuki, and Hibuchi." Totsuki, the one with red hair, walked forward with a bright smile.

"Hello my dears," She spoke with a deep voice. "Each of us have traveled to many places, and know all of thee latest styles. If you wish to get a foreign style, we are the ones to come to." I smirked. She wanted a foreign style? Oh lady, we were experts. But keeping my mouth shut, I instead took her hand.

"My brother and I are very grateful you're doing this for us. We're in your very capable hands." Pulling her hand up, I kissed it briefly. For a moment she was speechless, her face turning red as her assistants giggled to each other. That was easy. I let her go and she took a moment to gather her bearings, the smile on her face more genuine than before.

"Y-yes well. Which one of you would like to go first?" My brother looked up at me expectantly, too nervous to volunteer. Just another day as the best-big-brother-in-all-the-worlds.

I stepped forward, putting a big smile on their faces. "Let's see what you fine ladies can do," I challenged, exciting all of them.

Totsuki, the leader, did her best to retain her composure. "Yes, well, what types of cloths do you like to wear?" I didn't know too much about clothes in that world, but I knew enough to know what I liked to wear wouldn't be acceptable.

"Something light. Clean would be nice. Um...Something good for travel."

"Sailing!" My brother spoke aloud, making Aladdin jump. It was a good thing he had. I almost forgot one of the most important details.

"Oh, right! Sailing, I have to be able to wear it around water." The three girls huddle together for a moment to try and come up with some ideas. When they emerged, Sakura was the one who spoke to us.

With a pearly while smile she suggested with a heavy accent, "Clothes from Imuchakk, Sindria and Akitia have good water clothes, yes?" My eyes lit up at the suggestion of Sindria. I could actually get clothes that came from my-I mean, the country I was supposed to come from? No, that was a bad idea. When we leave it would just make me homesick for a place I hadn't found yet. But I'd never owned anything from my history other than my sword. It couldn't hurt to just get some clothes, right?

Alibaba saw my reaction. He put a supporting hand on my shoulder, deciding to answer for me. "Let's try the Sindrian ones."

Okay, I'll admit. I look awesome probably, 85% of the time. But the clothes brought it up to a whopping 110%.

I posed in front of the mirror while the three girls had left to help my brother find some clothes. The minute that I put them on I knew they were the clothes for me. They gave me some brown sandals that were surprisingly easy to run around in. (I tested it by jumping off the roof. I figured out pretty quickly that's not the social norm.) The pants were a deep red and slightly baggy, stopping just above the ankles. It had a white cloak around the waist, for nothing else but design as far as I could tell. On the top was a shirt with a low neckline the same colour as the pants, and a white jacket open at the front. The top was thin so it showed off my muscles and I had no problem with that. I had a loose string around my neck and my sword was tied to a leather belt on my waist. It wasn't the type of clothes that I usually wore, but it just felt so right.

"This rocks," I rejoiced, spinning around to face Alibaba and Aladdin. Actually, mostly just Alibaba. Aladdin was looking a little ticked off that my brother was gaining the attention of all the girls so easily. We were able to hear them giggling and gushing over how cute he was from the sitting room. "Thanks man. I'll do my best not to get it dirty, torn, burned, crushed, and slashed or too wet."

He potently avoided commenting on how many ways it could have gotten damaged. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad you are happy…" he trailed off, eyes losing focus as he was thinking of something. I huffed and snapped my fingers in front of his face, making him snap back to attention.

"Hey, what was that?" he blinked, then shook his head to help focus.

"Sorry about that. It's nothing, it's just…you look so much like King Sinbad." I blinked at him. I looked like him? I'd never really thought about it. Most people compared my brother and me to Hakuyuu and Hakuren, our uncles. Our physical traits reflected Sindrian nationality more than Kou. Our skin was tanned like our fathers, and our body types were muscular like his as well. My hair was black like our mothers and my brother had her blue eyes, but my eyes matched our fathers exactly while my brother had his purple hair. If you ask me, I'd say that we acted more like our father. Charismatic, lovers of adventure and fun-loving kids. I'm not sure how much we act like our uncles. I'd only met a few versions of them when I was younger.

Before I could comment, I was interrupted by hibachi. "What does everyone think of Hakuyuu's new outfit?" We turned, and my nose scrunched up in annoyance. He was wearing Sindrian clothes, but styled for a magician. It had a small white cloak on the outside with a blue magician uniform on the inside. The clothes were like mine, just not as fancy. But the expression my brother had on his face was nothing like mine when I'd worn my new clothes. He looked like the darkness was his only friend.

"Don't you like it bro?" He hesitated, not wanting to sound ungrateful. But eventually he sighed and shook his head.

 _It doesn't feel right,_ he complained, trying not to sound too whiney. _They're itchy and to...open?_ Looking guilty he turned back to the girls. _S-sorry. You all were really nice. Thank you very much!_ The girls all hurried to reassure that it wasn't his fault and that they'd find something else. That's my brother. Not going to lie, feels pretty good.

"They're Sindrian styled clothes," Aladdin mused, looking thoughtful. "Hm…Do you think you could find anything from Kou that might fit him?" We all turned to the girls.

Hibuchi didn't look convinced. "Kou is not known for being too comfortable with water-fit clothes." My brother shook his head, saying it didn't matter. "Well…we'll see what we can do."

While we were waiting, Alibaba got a call on his cellphone, or something like it they called the eye of the rukh. He excused himself to find out what was happening. My brother came back soon after he had left. He was wearing black silk pants that were fitted perfectly. His shirt was long, white with the design of a dragon on the side. I couldn't tell if the outfit was terrifying or adorable on my little brother. Either way, he seemed to like it. _Don't I look cool brother,_ he exclaimed happily. _Like a dragon!_

"Or a prince," Aladdin agreed, and my brother blushed a bit at the praise. His pink cheeks got even more praise from our helpers. "You look like royalty."

"Good thing to," Alibaba agreed as he returned. But he didn't look to happy. Actually he looked rather depressed. Oh man, had he seen the price tags or something? He turned to both of us, and I could tell what he was going to say was something he didn't want to say, but was of the utmost importance. "You two ought to look like princes," He scoffed, shaking his head. "Your presence has been requested by the king of Sindria."

The world stopped. Say what?


	7. Dining with the King

Dining with the King

 **Magi, the latest chapter, nonononononononononononono! It's killing me! AHHHHHH! I don't believe! Anyway, here's another chapter from my story.**

I was dead. That was it. I'd finally gotten into a situation that was so bad, even I wasn't able to save us from it. That was a good explanation. We weren't in another world. We were in hell. Was I looking green? I felt green. Pretty sick, maybe turning red around the eyes, bones probably melting into a puddle. That explained why I was having a problem standing. I was going to fall over. Any minute now…

 _Brother, I'm nervous. How about you?_

"Hm? Oh, pff, I'm fine. Don't be such a big baby." My brother pouted and plopped his head on the railing.

A few weeks later my brother and I found ourselves on a boat with Sindria in sight. The arrangements had been made so quickly I'd believe they were the ones with time travel, not me. Alibaba had told us that we should go in regular time instead of traveling through time to get their right away. 'It might, well…freak them out a bit.' True enough. So we'd gone on the boat like he'd asked, but we'd also had to leave and go back to the in-between a few times. We couldn't stay there forever. But luckily the boat was quick, (And we may have skipped a few days out of impatience) so in almost no time at all we ended up just approaching the shores of Sindria.

My brother held his stomach with a twisted look on his face. _I don't feel so good. There are butterflies in my stomach!_

I rolled my eyes. "No there isn't."

His cheeks puffed up. _Y-yes there is!_ Turning away, he pretended to cough into his hand. When he turned back, he had a bundle of blue and purple butterflies crawling around him. He beamed up at me proudly. _See? I told you so!_

I raised an eyebrow. "I know you used your magic to make them appear just now! You can't fool me." My brother deflated as the confused butterfly's hurried away, flying towards Sindria to find a place to rest. I watched them rush over like their life depended on it. Their actions reflected the exact opposite of mine. I wanted to be as far away from that place as I could get.

Brother ran around me, grabbing onto the railing and holding onto it for dear life. _I'm so scared! Why did we have to come?_

"Because it's rude not to!"

 _So?_ Fair point.

The sound of footsteps on the deck made me turn. Alibaba and Aladdin were walking over. For some reason THEY were allowed to keep the same clothes. Lucky them. "Don't worry about Sindria. Everyone there is really nice to newcomers!" Alibaba told us. Brother didn't look at him, his eyes stuck on the upcoming island like it was his grave. Out of fear I did my best not to look at it. That was easier said than done.

Sindria was just as I'd always pictured it. No, that's not entirely true. My imagination really sucks. What I was seeing was even better than what I'd pictured. The island that we saw in front of us was its own little world, standing tall in the middle of the ocean and proud despite its isolation. The high palace, gleaming and white could be seen from the docks that were built to fit all kinds of ships. (Wonder if they were prepared for submarines.) There were people of all shapes and sizes, working hard or laughing with their friends. The smell of the ocean overwhelmed the docks, and I'd bet no matter where you went you couldn't escape the scent. Voices could be heard from every direction, much like that place we'd went to called 'the city that never sleeps.' I could almost taste the fish being cooked in a nearby booth. The place was absolutely magical.

Like a glorified tomb.

The ship docked all too soon. My stomach did a summersault as they tied the boat to the dock. Nervously, I peeked out the corner of my eye to see the plank. Waiting at the bottom were two men, one with red hair and the other a giant. I recognized them as Spartos and Hinahoho immediately. Both of them were smiling. Like executioners who couldn't wait to bring us to the gallows. My brother shivered, taking a step closer to me so that he was leaning on me. _W-we can turn around now._ That was an option I would have jumped at. But what kind of example would that be for my younger brother expecting me to lead?

I swallowed my pride and took his hand. "Nope. Come on brother, it's not that bad. Just, pretend it's like the matrix. All that happens here isn't real." My brother perked up at my reference. He'd loved that universe. Before he let go of me he gave my hand a tight squeeze, took a deep breath and headed over to the plank. All the years of hiding and lying about our emotions had better pay off.

As I was about to head over to the exit as well, Aladdin stopped me. Alibaba walked past us, oblivious to the stern look on Aladdin's face. I'd never seen him with that look before. It reminded me of Solomon when he was telling us the rules of the worlds. _You can't stay in one world for too long,_ He'd ordered. _Unless it's your world._ Our entire lives had changed the day we'd met him.

Shaking off the memory I forced on a smile. "What's up?" Aladdin glanced behind me, waiting to make sure my brother and Aladdin were too busy talking to the others to notice us. Or perhaps he was making sure the two at the docks couldn't overhear.

Once he was assured no one could hear, he rushed to explain before anyone could come over. "You need to be wary of Sinbad. He can't be trusted." My eyebrows raised, but other than that I refused any kind of visual disturbance. I refused to reveal the sting my heart felt when he said that. Aladdin seemed to remember he was my father, and hurried to explain. "I mean, just be careful. Lately Sinbad has been…more selfish I guess. Over the last few years I…I personally can't agree with many of his actions. I don't know what's going on with him. Or if he always was like that. And you two can be very valuable sources or warriors so just…Be careful okay?" Outwardly I nodded, pretending not to be affected as much as I was. Many people from different worlds warned me about my father. How he wasn't trustworthy, dangerous, always hiding something. It made me wonder what my father would be like when I found him. Was he a good man? Or a fallen one?

I'd always hoped I'd been wrong and he wasn't like me.

"Sorry," Aladdin continued. "I just…thought you should know. He's always keeping secrets."

Good. So am I.

"I'm sure I can handle it," I assured him, slapping him on the back as I strolled over to follow my brother. My movements were lax and composed, pretending to be confident in my every move. If I was lucky they wouldn't see the lie in my eyes. As I got over my brother was already shaking their hands. I thought I told him that you were supposed to bow! That's the norm in that world, right?

He was introducing himself, acting like he didn't have a care in the world. _Hi! I don't have a name, so you can call me…call me Odysseus._ Changing his name again? Certainly was being cautious. Still smiling I reached over him and took the hand of the large one with cool hair.

"I'm the big brother. Don't have a name either, but call me Fierro." Fierro was a really cool guy I'd met in the land of Oz. Unfortunately he got turned into a straw man, but let's just forget that part for a bit.

Hinahoho gave us a toothy grin. "It's nice to meet you to. My name is,"

 _Hinahoho,_ my brother answered for him. _From the Immuchak race, one of king Sinbad's loyalist friends, married to Rinmarou with at least four children. And you're Spartos,_ he continued turning to the stunned man in front of him. _You came from a very conservative family, mother passed away at a young age leaving your father with you and your older brother. One of the youngest of Sinbad's followers, close friend with Pisti._ Again, to maintain the innocent image he tipped his head to the smile, opening hi eyes wide. _Am I right?_ The way they stared at him told me that he was.

Alibaba coughed sheepishly. "S-so, where's Sinbad? Are the boys going to meet him later?" I didn't like the way that he said that.

Spinning on my heal I turned to face him. "Are you not coming?" Alibaba's eyes widened innocently, just like my brothers had. Except I believed when he did it wasn't fake.

"No. Sinbad wanted to talk to the two of you alone." Aladdin scowled, but as soon as I turned to him he wiped it away with a smile. Not so happy about the idea, huh? I wondered what Sinbad had done in that world to make someone like Aladdin distrustful of him.

Once Spartos had regained his voice he explained, "Right now Sinbad is just finishing up some paperwork he has to do." Sinbad willingly did PAPERWORK? There was no way that Sinbad was my father. "We'll bring you up to the palace so you can get used to the place. He's invited you to eat dinner with him." My brother and I both perked up.

 _Food?_

"FOOD?"

We were sold.

…

* * *

After an hour or so of 'settling in' (Basically sneaking around the castle to find all the coolest sights) we were brought to the dining hall. The minute we entered, my brother's jaw dropped open. Okay, mine fell open to. It was one of the fanciest dining halls I'd ever seen. The ground was covered in shining white marble with black streaks. The walls were pearl white with drawings of various stories that their king and the generals went through. In each corner was a pillar holding up the ceiling, and different kinds of plants on either side of them. The table was made of fine wood, long and rectangular. Could probably fit, what, 40 people? No, a lot more than that even. And at one end of the table there was…

 _Food!_ My brother exclaimed, sprinting over to the table happily. There was enough food to feed 8 families. There was fish, chicken, lamb and 2 other kinds of meat I didn't recognize. Different delicacies like dumplings, rice pudding, even scones! I couldn't believe there was wine! Most countries I went to always said 'I was too young for wine,' I mimic in a sarcastic voice. Even the vegetables were mouth-watering, spread with different spices that I'd never heard of before but made me want to dig in with a pitchfork and a steak knife. Oh man, and the SMELL! It sounded like heaven was having a barbeque and all the people in all of the worlds were invited. I'd had a hard time restraining myself in different situations. Waiting for the right moment, trying not to punch a jerk in the face, ext. But NOTHING was as hard for me as it was to jump into the food and eat all of it until my stomach burst.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I asked the chefs to make everything," A voice behind me chuckled. Just like that I lost my appetite.

With a sinking stomach, I slowly turned to face our host. King Sinbad stood around a foot taller than me, smiling the same charming smile my brother and I used to get people to trust us.

I'd already seen him at the meeting we'd accidentally interrupted. But it was different seeing the man face-to-face for the first time. The closer we were, the more similarities I could find between the three of us. The posture we all took were alike, keeping our heads held high and arms open to welcome people in. Though his eyes looked as curious as my brothers were, I could see the darkness in them that I often tried to hide in my own. We even had our swords held at the same place, on the right side hanging off the belt. I couldn't see too many similarities between him and my brother. I didn't want to. I never wanted to picture my brother like that.

His smile, when acting innocent, was like my brothers. That was something I couldn't change.

Forcing on a fake smile, I gestured to the food. "You shouldn't have. We would have been just fine with a hamburger and fries." My tone was casual, but my movements were firm, refusing to let my guard down. From the way his mouth twitched just slightly, he knew it too.

And decided to go along with it. "Hamburger? Sorry, I don't know what that is. I hope the food you have is alright." The table was full. I couldn't remember the last time we'd seen that much food. That HAD to be a joke.

"I've forgotten my manners. That is my younger brother, Odysseus. My name is Fierro." Instinctively, I started to reach out my hand. Only then I realized it was shaking. I hurried to pull back the action before he noticed. I was having a hard time looking him in the eyes. That was bad. It showed a weakness I didn't want to have.

It must have been my lucky day. He didn't notice. "Fierro? Funny, the name on your health files was different." In my head I cursed. Dang it. He checked up on us? We'd only been there for less than a month! "The last name you went by," He continued, a dangerous tone to his voice. "Was, what…Badr?" If I could have lit those files on fire, I would have. I'd known it was a bad idea to let my brother pick the names! That was his father's name. Did he make the connection? Was that why he brought us to his kingdom?

Only then did I realize that there wasn't anyone else in the room. The cooks were gone, all the food had already been made. There were no guards at the door like there where at almost every other one. Servants who usually stood by in those kinds of places to take the dishes weren't there. Even his friends, Jafar and Masrur who were almost always with him in many universes had left. In a giant room, one that could probably fit hundreds of people only held three. Had he done that on purpose? What did he want from us? Aladdin had told us to be cautious.

We shouldn't have come.

Oblivious to the tension in the room, my brother rushed over. He seemed too happy and joyful, even I couldn't tell if he was faking it or not. _Hi King Sinbad!_ He greeted him, taking his hand and shaking it. _My name is Odysseus! That food looks really yummy!_ At least his attitude was able to calm Sinbad down. He laughed as if he met people as crazy as my brother all the time.

"That's a relief. I certainly hope the two of you enjoy your stay here as much as you enjoy the food." Stay? How long was he expecting us to stay for? On the bright side, that meant he didn't know about my djinn. We could escape whenever we wanted.

 _Can we eat it now?_ My brother asked with pleading eyes. No one could resist.

"Of course! It was made for you anyway." My brother cheered and rushed over to the table, jumping into the nearest seat and grabbing the closest food to him. I take it back. He was genuinely happy. To happy. Flounder muffins, he was going to slip up, wasn't he? So much for being nervous. Food could make him do anything.

I was more hesitant than him, but it took all my strength. As I turned away from Sinbad and headed over to the food, my senses became overwhelmed by the food as well. Gosh, where had they even gotten that much? Were they really able to bring that much food out for two people? They had that much food to spare? What had we done to deserve special treatment? I chose the seat next to my brother who had already started to eat while Sinbad took the seat across from us. My brother had picked a buttered fish and had already dove into it. The tail was gone, with a little trickle of butter on his cheek. At least he'd remembered to use his cutlery. Unlike LAST time. Sinbad didn't seem to mind. "Do you like fish Odysseus?" He asked him. My brother nodded, continuing to eat.

 _Uh-huh. Fish is one of my favourite foods ever!_ Sinbad chuckled, his voice was low yet friendly.

"That's great. Sindria is in high supply of fish, as you can probably tell." My brother nodded, but was too busy with his food to respond. He turned his attention on me, and I stiffened. "What about you? Do you want anything specific?"

I gulped. I was not used to being nervous. It was so weird. "I-uh," I reached out and grabbed the closest thing to me. It was…um…some kind of meat wrapped in a thin bread, I think. "This is fine," I told him with a smile, stuffing it in my mouth. It wasn't the best thing I'd ever tasted, but it was still pretty good. A mixture of spices and meet inside a soft bread. I should be a chef. You know, if I could cook.

Sinbad frowned a little, but quickly returned to smiling. "Alright then." With his left arm he grabbed a bottle of something and poured it in his glass. "Do you want some wine?" When would he just get to the point?

Humoring him, I shook my head. "No, I'm good." My brother turned and stared at me like I'd just shrieked like a dolphin.

 _What are you talking about? You love alcohol, you drink it any chance you get!_ My piercing gaze got to him too late. Sure, I loved alcohol. Okay, it was my favourite drink in the entire world. But Sinbad didn't need to know that. Especially when I never knew my limits. Again he didn't react. It bugged me how in control he was. I wasn't used to dealing with people who were as good actors as I was. And at the time, I really wasn't showing it.

"I'll just have some soda for now," I suggested, glaring at my brother to keep quiet. He gave me a strange look, but shrugged and let it go. Why was he so calm? Had I taught him nothing? Sinbad on the other hand frowned openly.

"Sorry, I don't think we have anything called 'soda.' Does some punch sound fine?" He gestured to a fancy jug not too far from me. I nodded and took the jug to poor myself some as Sinbad turned back to my brother. "What about you Odysseus?" My brother waved his hand over a bowl of cheese filled pasta, making it float over to his plate.

 _Do you have any goat's milk? It's my favourite drink!_ After taking a bite of his food he looked up. _Can it be warmed up? Do you have microwaves?_

The king pointed over to a mug in the place next to him. I hadn't noticed it had been steaming. "I don't think that a 'microwave' will be necessary." Wow, he'd really thought of everything. My brother let out a happy cheer before forcing the mug over to his spot. He took a big gulp and beamed. He had a mustache of milk on his upper lip, and he licked it away joyfully.

 _Thank you very much!_ Sinbad laughed, and just like that the tension lifted. At least for the two of them. I could only fill up my plate, unable to look up.

What was wrong with me? I was supposed to be the suave one. The cool kid, the one other's got nervous about talking to. But I was acting like a scarecrow! We were meeting our father. No, sorry, the man resembling our father. But it was him at the same time. I'd pictured the day I'd finally meet him so many times. I would act cool, it would be natural as if we'd known each other our entire lives. But when I was actually in the situation, I didn't know what to do. I'd never been at a loss for words often, but I was. What could I say? What could I do? Did I want to make a good impression, try and impress him? Did I even care? Calm down and keep your thoughts to your boy. It was no different than when I'd met the president! Just think of it like that. He was a stranger of authority, nothing more.

Taking a deep breath I forced my nerves to relax. I took a sip of some punch while I tuned back into their conversation. "So Fierro, Odysseus," Sinbad began, and I tensed. Here we go. He'd finally get to the point of us being there.

"Tell me about yourselves." Or not.

When we remained silent, he pretended to realize something. "Oh, right. I haven't formally introduced myself, have I?" Well, no he hadn't. But that wasn't a problem for us.

 _Oh that's okay,_ my brother assured him, taking a bite out of some kind of vegetable. _We already know all about you._ He raised a cautious eyebrow.

"Do you now." He nodded. I decided it was my turn to not look like a floundering buffoon.

"You're King Sinbad of Sindria, a kingdom that you built with the help of your friends. You used to be a fisherman, but that changed when you became the first dungeon capturer. Since then you've probably gathered about 6 more djinns along with secrets from around the world. Your mother was Esla and your father was Badr, a war hero who hated war. You're the head of the seven seas alliance, as well as the king of Sindria. Various people call you different things, some of them are 'lady-killer of the seven seas,' 'stupid king,' ext. But while publically you're a charming selfless leader who could do no wrong, in reality you're deceitful and cunning with a very strong egoistic personality." Pausing, I slipping my hand over my glass and took a slow, deliberate drink so it could sink in. When I was done, I slowly lifted my eyes to meet his. The smirk on my face was a reminder of myself that I was just as sneaky as he was. "Does that sound about right?"

My silent message was clear. _Your move, king._

His eyes had widened, visibly showing his shock. He'd stopped moving, his hand stuck on his glass in surprise. I wondered what really got to him. The way I'd acted, or what I'd said. My brother remained silent, quietly snacking on a bread roll. For a while no one said anything, Sinbad deciding his next move while I relished in mine. After some time, Sinbad blinked again. Like I had, he took a quick breath and focused on the food so he could regain his thoughts. Finally he looked up at us, a fake smile placating his expression.

"That's impressive," he congratulated us as he took a sip of his wine. "I don't know how you could have gotten that information, but I'm surprised you know that much." Brother turned a little red at the complement, but I refused to react. "Well, since you two know so much about me," he added, his dark smile returning. "Don't you think it's fair that I learn a bit about you?"

I bit my tongue in anguish. Dang it!

That jerk! Had he already known we'd know about him? Had he just said that to get us talking? We'd allowed him to play us like fiddles. Sure it wasn't that big a deal for that kind of information, but if it was that easy, what else could he get out of us? Just when I'd thought we'd finally figured out how to guard ourselves from Sinbad's tactics. We'd sung like birds.

My brother raised his eyebrows at me. _I'm sorry, we?_ He spoke to only me.

 _Shut up,_ I shot back.

In a quick-made decision, I decided to go along with it for now. "What do you want to know?"

"As much as you are willing to spare," Sinbad replied wisely. He must have known he wouldn't get any important details out of us our first meeting.

 _Oh, I like to meet new people,_ my brother offered willingly. _And I love hearing stories and playing games. Surfing is okay, but my brother is better at it than me. Brother here,_ he elbowed me friendly, not noticing me shaking my head at him. _Is such a history nerd. When he's not fighting, going on adventures or flirting he'll be trying to research the history of any country he can find!_

My face turned bright red. "Brother! Shut up!" Brother giggled and stuffed his face full of little slices of fruit. Why couldn't I have been born unable to blush like our father? Lucky him. Sinbad laughed as well, which aggravated me. He never felt embarrassment, I wish I'd inherited that. Brother says I did, but not as much as him.

"Fighting, flirting, adventuring and reading," Sinbad repeated, musing over the information like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. "While you enjoy making friends, stories, games and surfing. I'd guess you like magic to?"

 _I love magic!_ My brother nodded, his face beaming at the reminder. _I enjoy making stuff out of it. I'm a lightning type magic, while my brother is a strength type. He's not a magician though. Not enough Rukh._ I wasn't sure if many Sinbad's knew enough about magic to understand that, but he nodded anyway.

"Yes, your health files said something about that." Those files were going to burn baby BURN. "Speaking of your health files, I noticed a few things." Noticed a few things? Oh great, what more could he have learned about us? Had Sphintus written down info about our abilities? I'd thought he'd only written basic boring bio stuff, like heights and blood types…

Oh no. He wrote down who our parents were.

I'd completely forgotten about it. Our parents! Sinbad must have read it! No, calm down, maybe Sphintus had been smart enough to get rid of the names. On the other hand, why would he have cared? He'd even said while we were there that he didn't care about royal affairs. It was a doctor's duty to be honest! How the heck were we going to explain something like that to him? 'What, you didn't know you had two sons? Wow that sucks!' We'd definitely get grounded for that attitude. He was a king, would he panic? How would he react? We'd be in so much trouble, there would be chaos, and if he knew about our mom it may become an all-out war-

"I noticed you didn't put down a place of birth." Or I was thinking too much and I would gladly allow someone to shoot me in the head. "Where did you two grow up?" THAT was a hard question to answer.

Brother hesitated and turned to me to answer. (Oh, NOW you turn to me? Little traitor) "We don't have a specific home, unless you count the area in-between worlds. Other than that we travel around and stay wherever we need to." That made his spirits fall, and he became more serious. Of all the things to focus on, why that?

"You two don't have a home?" My brother and I glanced at each other, confused at the confusion.

"Uh, no we don't. We can't stay in one world for too long, and often we can't get back to them. There was no point in trying." That just made his frown deepened. I just couldn't connect the two facts. Why was that information relevant to him? How could it possibly be useful?

It was important to him though. "No home? Than…who raised you?"

That didn't seem potentially dangerous, so I had no problem with answering. "I raised my younger brother myself. I had help with friends and allies we'd made since I was very young when he appeared."

"You raised your brother on your own?" Sinbad interrupted. "How old were you?" His question made me stop and think for a moment. He got me off track, and I had no idea why.

"I…I don't know for certain. My own age is kind of, uh…I'm not positive of my own age. It got mixed up over the years." Sinbad nodded grimly.

"And…you? Who raised you?"

It wasn't a hard question to answer. "No one really. When I was born-appeared, I was traveling through worlds randomly because I couldn't control it. Random people would help me. Others wouldn't. It was just chance. There were hundreds of worlds and no system, so I never saw many people twice until I learned to control it." I didn't mention that my djinn was the reason I could do that. He didn't need to know much about that.

"…So you raised yourself," Sinbad studied the words with precision, careful not to miss anything. "As well as your brother." instead of a cold, calculating face, a look of concern washed over him. Perhaps a bit of shame. "…That must have been hard." We didn't know what to say. It had to be some kind of trick, right? But what kind of act would that do him.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Sinbad slipped on a casual smile. "I'd love to learn more about you two," He told us while serving himself some food. "It sounds like you two have quite a few stories to tell." Brother brightened at a topic he could understand.

 _Oh sure we do! We've been to all kinds of places._ The two of them went on to talk about a few of our most interesting stories. I kept my mouth shut, watching Sinbad through narrowed eyes. He wasn't asking about our powers. He hadn't asked about the other worlds, or what we knew or secrets of other leaders. All he was asking were questions about us. Why had he brought us? I just didn't understand. All…All he wanted was to get to know us?

Why?

As we were eating, the doors opened. All three of us turned to face the guest who hurried through the room. I recognized them instantly.

The world topped, and my skin ran cold.

"King Sinbad, Jafar wanted me to tell you you're needed in the throne room." Sinbad cringed at the way they referred to him, but nodded politely. Then he blinked, and turned back to us.

"Oh, you haven't met our other guest here at Sindria. Odysseus, Fierro, this is Princess Hakuei Ren of Sindria."


	8. Private Conversations

Private Conversations

Ever wonder what it's like to die? Not in the terrible, please no, don't hurt me, I have a family, kind of way. But when that one thing happened, that no one thought would ever happen, not in a million years does happen. The shock alone is enough to send your head spinning and make stars dance before your eyes. It gets to the point that even if you aren't really dead, you might as well have keeled over and watched your soul float out of your body moaning in pain as it slipped away. Ever wonder about that?

Me neither.

Mostly cause, I hated surprises. I didn't want anything like that to happen.

I got pretty close.

"Odysseus, Fierro, this is Princess Hakuei Ren of Sindria," Sinbad had said, but the words still rolled through my mind, taunting the fabric of control I'd kept up till then. Tempting my shields to break, and nearly launching me to my feet in shock so I could stare at her in an open mouthed disbelief. There were a few things I wanted to do then. One of them was leave. Running away was easy. Another was scream. Most of my reactions were emotional, impulsive, reckless, all three things that I exceled at being. I didn't do any of them.

Instead the only word that came out of my mouth was, "Sindria?"

It sounded like a mouse had just learned to talk.

I clamped my mouth shut before anyone could hear what I had said and tried again. "Uh, I mean, Sindria? You're from Sindria? Aladdin had told me someone named Hakuei was from Kou." My brother glanced at me, sparks of fear and restlessness inside his eyes. Neither Sinbad nor Hakuei held the same expressions. Both of them looked very calm and welcoming. Mature.

Sinbad was able to answer my question with ease. "Originally, yes, Hakuei comes from Sindria. But a while ago we put her in charge of international relations inside of Sindria for her visit. We present her as from Sindria while she is here."

"Temporarily," Hakuei hurried to add. Sinbad flinched at the reminder, though Hakuei pretended not to notice. Instead she walked over to us, holding out her hand in greeting. "It's very nice to meet the two of you. Which one was Odysseus and which one is Fierro?" Automatically, I sat up straighter to try and maintain a look of dignity. Despite my age, I could at least appear like someone who knew more than he should. Even if it was just a trick, even if it was a lie, just looking like that usually had others on edge. Psychological warfare techniques were just as valuable off the battle as they were in it.

My brother on the other hand, decided to try and go with the innocent, 'don't mind me because I'm just a cute kid,' kind of approach. Jumping down from his seat with a bit of meat sauce on his cheek, he rushed over to her with steps as light as a dancers. Giddily, he took her hand and shook it rapidly, like if he didn't it would go away before he got the chance. _My name is Odysseus, and that it Fierro. It's nice to meet you Miss, I've heard a lot about you! Do you want some goat's milk, it tastes really good!_ At first she was taken back by his enthusiasm. That or the fact that he wasn't speaking with his mouth. Aladdin must have already given her a head up. Inwardly I cringed with embarrassment. Sometimes I wished I was an only child.

Out of the corner of my eye, I kept a cautious eye on Sinbad. His eyes weren't on me however. They were on Hakuei with my younger brother, the hint of a smile on his face. There was something almost sad in the way he looked at them. Something…forlorn? Longing? As if he was missing something that he had long ago. I didn't know the past of this Sinbad. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

If my brother wasn't busy acting like a suck-up, he would have been able to. Hakuei, thank goodness, didn't seem to mind. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Gently she let go of her hand before turning so she could face all three of us. "Did you just start your meal? I can come back later if you would prefer." With a wave of his hand, Sinbad dismissed the thought.

"No, you should stay! There's enough food to go around. You two boys don't mind, do you?" There was a twinkle in his eye that set me on edge. If I was a danger detector, I would have been beeping up a storm. Every second longer I remained in that world I wished I could leave.

Brother wasn't any help. _Yeah, stay! Let's all have a meal together, just the four of us! It will be fun!_ Don't tell anyone, but I was seriously considering leaving him when I left.

To my relief, Hakuei shook her head. "Unfortunately I cannot. Kouen would like to speak to you, if that is alright." The last part wasn't directed at Sinbad. He probably had to go whether he wanted to or not. Instead she was talking to us. My brother and I.

"Why does emperor Kouen want to speak to us?" Hakuei shook her head, her raven hair identical to mine sliding along her shoulders.

"I did not ask. But he wished to speak to you both as well as Sinbad." Unconsciously, the scowl that Sinbad and I made mimicked each other perfectly.

"Uh-huh," I replied, much less enthusiastic than I should have been. "And why would we want to come talk to,"

 _Uncle Kouen!_ My brother squealed. _I'd love to meet him! Oh my gosh, that sounds great, where do we go?_ A volcano erupted somewhere, mirroring my rage. Uncle? What was wrong with him? Was he insane? That little, lying, no good…

Before I could completely annihilate my younger brother, Hakuei let out an easy laugh. "Aladdin used to call Kouen uncle as well. I should have guessed you'd learn from him. You're both so alike." By brother beamed at what wasn't intended to be a complement, but he took it as one.

 _Aladdin is really cool,_ my brother told her, his cheeks turning a sweet shade of pink. _He does magic just like me!_ Even Hakuei, a non-magician, seemed impressed by my brother's magic abilities already. It had been a good idea to send him to that wizarding school in Britain while I had gone and made friends with those humanoid-reptilian ninjas.

"Perhaps the two of you should train together," Sinbad suggested, getting up as everyone turned to face him. "But for not, we should go and see what Kouen wants." Was anyone listening to me anymore?

"Wait, I didn't say we,"

 _Let's get going!_ My brother agreed, taking a hold of Hakuei's hand. _Where do we go?_

"Hey, I thought we should,"

"He's using the new visual eye of the rukh that Yamu invented in her lab," Hakuei told him, her tone full of affection.

"What kind of thing did she,"

"Then let's not keep him waiting," Sinbad agreed, taking his spot next to Hakuei. "We can come back and finish the meal later. Hakuei can join us!"

 _Sounds perfect!_ Brother agreed, turning to me with a spark similar to Sinbad's in his eye. _Come on brother, don't be late!_ All three of them walked out of the room, the door sliding shut behind them. Leaving me alone.

"…What just happened?"

…

When I finally caught up to the, I snatched my brother by the collar. _Ow!_ If it hadn't been me, I have no doubt he would have turned me into ice and watched mercilessly as I melted to the ground. Before he could complain, I dragged him behind a corner, only glancing out to make sure Hakuei and Sinbad hadn't noticed. Luckily, both of them were engrossed in a private conversation between the two of them. They didn't even notice my brother's absence.

Or if they did, they were ignoring it.

 _What's wrong brother?_ He complained when I finally let him go. _These clothes are brand new! When's the next time we're going to get new clothes, huh?_ I decided not to dignify that question with a response.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? 'Uncle Kouen?' 'Do you want to eat with us?'" I'll admit, my mimicking skills could have used some practice. My brother huffed, pushing away from me so he could straighten his new clothes.

 _They don't suspect anything, if that's what you're worried about,_ he told me with a pout on his face. Yeah, cause that was mature.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Who cares about what they think? We're just going to leave this world behind like all the others. What I want to know is what they heck are you doing getting so close to them? Don't you remember our rule?" We had many of rules. Most of them didn't have to be spoken out loud. I had assumed 'don't get close to people you'll never see again and you may miss' was one of those. It was obvious! He might as well have said, 'that fire is pretty,' and gone over and touched it despite the fact that it literally would BURN him.

To make it worse, my brother wouldn't meet my eyes. Bright, sea blue eyes were trained on the floor in between us instead of looking up at me. _I know, I know…You don't want me to get hurt, but…On the way here I was just…thinking…_

"That's dangerous." He scrunched his nose at me. It was his own fault.

 _I was thinking that maybe…Until we find our real parents, that…_ Shy, nervous for my answer, he forced himself to meet my gaze. _This will be the closest we get to them._

For a minute, it was like I was using my djinn and he'd decided to play a prank on me. And make everything stop.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Had too much traveling through words finally melted his brain? Or maybe just his ability to have any common sense at all. "Wh…what the heck is that supposed to mean? Have you lost it?" With a sigh he shook his head, but I could tell I wasn't getting through to him. "That's crazy brother, and you know it. Have you given up on finding our real parents? These people aren't them! They are just copies. We'll see our real parents when we find them, you know that!" It was like he was an iron wall. Not a single thing was getting through to him.

 _I know, I know that brother! I get they aren't the same, they aren't even together, but…They are similar to the ones we are looking for right?_

Begrudgingly, I agreed. "Yeah, but,"

 _And we're probably not going to find our real parents for a long time, right?_ I didn't reply. _So I kind of just…wanted to feel what it was like to be around them. Our parents. For a little while at least. Feel what it's like if we…actually existed. Maybe just for a few days? Even if it's not the same, at least to get to know what they'll be like, and the people around them. Just to get to know them?_ I didn't know how to respond. We must have stood there for a millennia, but the clocks around us said it was only a few seconds.

"I didn't realize you felt like that." Brother couldn't look me in the eyes. It was hard to really listen, but deep down I knew that was partly my fault. Both of us had practiced keeping our deeper feelings a secret, but lying to each other was much harder. Maybe I'd known for a while, but tried to avoid it.

Deep down, I wondered how I felt about it.

No, that was going too far. "Fine. You can do what you want, make friends for all I care. But don't forget, at the end of all this, we will be leaving them behind, just like we do everyone else. If you think you can handle that, go ahead." Without another word, I spun on my heels and stormed away so I could catch up to our parents copies. I heard him sigh behind me, but I didn't acknowledge it. He could go on and play house for all I cared. When we were done here, we were leaving and going back to the mission we had for as long as I could remember. That was it.

As we got closer to them, I probably should have wondered why Sinbad and Hakuei hadn't noticed we weren't walking with them. One of them should have trailed back and tried to find us. Hakuei would have out of concern, Sinbad because he didn't want us to run away when he wasn't paying attention.

Turned out they were having their own little one on one as well.

"Sin, now is not the time." The whisper made me stop short. My brother tried to keep walking, but I yanked him off his feet and his us both behind a wall, like I had before. That time he knew it was better not to argue, as we both peeked out curiously. It looked like we had nearly walked into an intense discussion. They were facing each other, Hakuei's arms crossed as she did the same thing my brother had. Refused to look him in the eyes.

Sinbad was glaring at her like I had my brother. "'Temporarily? What was that supposed to mean?" My brother glanced up in me, an easy to understand question in his eyes. 'Should we leave?' he didn't even have to say it for me to know what he asked. But I shook my head. It was always good to get information on people we weren't sure we could trust.

It was best I didn't say that part out loud.

Hakuei huffed as she shook her head. "Exactly as it sounds King Sinbad. I'm only here temporarily, isn't that right?" He frowned darkly, crossing his own arms across his chest.

"I don't know. I hadn't realized that was the decision that you'd made." That was the wrong thing to say.

Hakuei fumed silently, covering her face with her hand in exasperation. "You know that wasn't-…I don't know right now. As far as anyone else knows I am only here temporarily. I wasn't trying to say that I'd already decided I wasn't staying. I haven't decided that yet."

"When will you," Sinbad interrupted. "It's been a while now." She didn't answer, and I noticed her hair falling forward as she tipped her head down.

"I know Sin. I…I'm sorry, I just don't know." Honestly, I expected him to get mad. It sounded like something that was important to both of them. To my surprise, the only evidence of anger I heard was him taking a deep breath to calm himself.

He glanced around a bit as he tried to calm down. My brother and I both pulled back in a rush, holding our breath. We were pretty sure he hadn't noticed us. Hopefully. "I understand," Sinbad spoke gently to Hakuei. In my head I picture him putting his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in place. Close to him. "I get that it's been very confusing for you. But you can understand my impatience, can't you?" There was a silence. The swishing of hair.

Probably a nod. "Yes. It's just…not easy to decide on. I've still got a few more months, don't I?" Sinbad didn't reply. Both of us heard Hakuei sigh gently. "Let's get going. Kouen doesn't like being kept waiting." There was the sound of a single pair of footsteps walking in the hallway. My brother squirmed in my arms, trying to get out, but I held him tight.

"Not yet," I whispered. He stopped fighting.

After exactly three heartbeats, the next set of footsteps followed them behind. We waited for the sound to completely disappear before relaxing, letting my brother get to his feet. _What do you think that was about?_ He asked me as I panted from holding my breath too long.

Still panting, I shook my head. "I…I don't know…We should hurry up and catch up to them. They might get suspicious." My brother nodded without question. There were something we would always agree on.

…

Sinbad and Hakuei were waiting for us when we finally got to the lab. Sinbad turned to us, a charming smile on his face. "Hey guys. What took you both so long?"

Easily, I put on the same smile he showed me. "My brother was hungry, so we went back to grab a quick snack. Sorry for making you wait so long," I lied easily.

His smile never wavered. "Oh, not that long. Let's just hope Kouen isn't in a rush today." Hakuei frowned at Sinbad's hint of attitude, but let it go. As we entered the lab, Sinbad turned to us. "Are you two ready to meet the emperor of Kou?"

Oh yeah. It was going to be real interesting.

 **Hi everyone! How's life going? I'm sorry this chapter is really late. I hope everyone likes it!**


	9. Pick a Side

Pick a side

How many of you have seen the Lego movie? The new one, came out a while ago? My brother and I went to see it a few months ago when we were bored. Anyone remember that scene where all the Lego people were all meeting in one place, and they mad the hero go in the middle of the room to make a speech to inspire them all? I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at that moment. I didn't have much sympathy for him.

That changed pretty quickly.

On the bright side, there were no historical figures made of plastic. (Though the guards weren't moving.) It wasn't as crowded as the movie had been. But the people in the room were the exact people that I wasn't prepared to see. Oh, I had been expecting them. But seeing it is different than knowing it. Isn't that what the books say? Besides. I hadn't been expecting ALL of them.

The attendants of the Kou nation stood on one side of the grand hall. Instead of only Kouen, like I'd expected, there was also Kougyoku, Kouha, Koumei, Hakuryuu as well as a selection of various Kou princess's I'd never bothered learning the names of. Their images flickered, telling me that they weren't actually there. It must have been that invention the magician Yamu had made. Hakuryuu's image was faint, so I guessed he must have been further away than the others. On the other side stood the representatives of the Sindrian nation. All eight generals stood at attention, arms at their side or behind their backs. Masrur and Jafar stood behind the throne, the place for the king. At the third end was Alibaba and Aladdin, though his group was much less formal. They stood with a group of only a few young adults, nearly all of them with scar and stitches. I recognized Morgianna standing straight at her king's side, but the rest didn't seem too concerned with looking official. They were lounging around or leaning against the wall, curious to see the show.

If I was naïve, I could have fooled myself into believing I wasn't the show.

"Emperor Kouen," Sinbad broke the silence. He, Hakuei, two guards, my brother and I, were the only ones who stood on the other side of the room. All their attention was on us. I should have cleaned up after eating. "I'm surprised at you calling this meeting so quickly," the king continued, heading over to his side and taking his seat at the throne. Automatically my brother went to follow the one who brought us to the room, but I held him back. Sinbad tried to keep the situation calm, putting on a smile and keeping his posture relaxed. "Tell me, how is your engagement to the princess Pegnoshia coming along?"

I wasn't sure if that was meant to be personal or not, but Kouen didn't react at all. "Quite well, thank you. The princess is very…interesting." My brother covered his mouth to hide a smirk. Both of us knew who he was talking about, and we knew interesting was one of the few ways to describe that princess.

Glancing up, I noticed princess Hakuei hadn't gone to her family yet. She looked torn, her family one side and the country she was living in on the other. No one else paid much attention, but I noticed Sinbad's eyes flickered over to her from time to time. Waiting for her to pick one of the two. Eventually I found myself watching her moves curiously as well. I wondered which one she was going to choose. I didn't know what the background was to their story. But if it was at the point when Sinbad would cautiously watch her every move, I wondered how thin the wire they were walking on was. How easily could one move make or break them?

Without looking at Sinbad, Hakuei turned to her side and took her place next to her brother Hakuryuu.

None of her family members noticed. Hakuryuu only smiled and nodded at his sister when she came over. But Sinbad's eyes never left her figure. Behind the smile I could see the anguish of emotions that went through him as she made the choice. If I hadn't been paying attention, I could believe Hakuei was just as oblivious as the rest of her family.

But she never met Sinbad's eyes.

"I don't mean to rush this meeting king Sinbad," Kouen told him, Sinbad's eyes flickering back to his adversary. "But I'm sure that you have many things to get done. I simply wished to speak to you about a few things, then I would like to speak to the two boys that Aladdin has told me about." My brother's eyes widened. He turned to Aladdin, but the magi gave him a look that I didn't follow. Slowly my brothers face became calm, and he turned back to face the two kings. Had Aladdin been able to use telepathy on my brother? He himself said that had taken a lot of power.

With a smirk, I absorbed the information that magi were more powerful than I had though.

Sindria's king nodded politely. "If it's alright with them, then it is alright with me. Odysseus, Fierro," He called to us, waving us over. We took a few steps forwards, but were careful not to lean more towards one side or the other. I didn't like the distance they put between themselves. "I'm sure you both already know the royal family of the Kou Empire." The kou family stirred, glancing at each other in confusion. I on the other hand turned to glare at the king venomously. I don't recall telling him it was okay for him to tell others about what we knew.

Did I tell him that? No? Didn't think so.

With all the eyes on me, I decided to relent. "Of course," I smiled, turning my attention to princess Kougyoku. Folding on hand over the other I bowed at her smoothly. "Princess Kougyoku, if I'm not mistaken. Dungeon capturer, fought in countless battles, as well as one of the first female generals to go down in the history of the Kou Empire. Those triplets of yours become pretty famous as well, though they must be quite a handful right now huh? As a helpful tip, bribing them with peaches always works. Legend says they love peaches as much as your husband." Kougyoku's mouth had dropped open in shock, along with just about every guest in the room. My pride got a good boost from seeing how big a reaction I could get out of just a few words.

Through looking flustered, there was also some confusion. "I-I…I'm not married."

Drat. I'd done it again.

"Oh…Um…Spoilers?" brother slapped himself in exasperation.

My brother decided that he ought to take over. _Emperor Kouen, took over after the reign of the empress Gyoken was executed. Prince Koumei, second prince and famous for strategic thinking. Kouha Ren, third prince with a strong bloodlust and loyalty to his followers. Prince Hakuryuu, dungeon capturer of two and last remaining son of the emperor Hakuto. We know who you are._ Kouha and Hakuryuu both looked stunned, while the two eldest brothers were able to maintain their composure. At the sides the princesses that my brother had forgotten about huffed and mumbled about how great their stories had to be. I didn't have the heart to tell them they had no stories.

Shaking it off, Kouen was the first to continue. "Good. There is no need for introductions then. There are a few things we'd like to discuss with you," Kouen told Sinbad, turning away from my brother and I. "Nothing that required my coming their personally." _No,_ I observed. _But enough for you to call nearly your whole family to the meeting?_

The king didn't note this. "What would you like to talk to me about?"

"We weren't sure you had been told, so we wanted to give you a reminder," Koumei spoke for his brother. "Princess Hakuei may return to Kou as soon as she is prepared. We have already sent a boat out to come and get her." What was probably only supposed to be just a small piece of information caused and uneasy silence was pass over the room.

Yeah. Cause it was so cheerful before that. They needed more silence, didn't they?

The royal family of Kou were the only ones who didn't seem to find anything wrong with the information. The generals all turned to each other, shock plain on their faces. Jafar and Darkkon started whispering to each other fervently, trying to sort out what they had just been told. Hakuryuu turned to his sister with a smile, assuming she would smile back. Instead her eyes had popped open, mouth hanging open so wide a bird could have come and made a little nest there. Sinbad's smile had melted away. At first he simply looked surprised, matching his advisors.

Then it turned into a dangerous scowl.

It was the Kou Empire's turn to be surprised.

"If I remember correctly, your highness," Sinbad spoke with slow, cautious words. "General Hakuei isn't supposed to leave my country until al-thamen is brought down, right? Unless we have found David and finally destroyed him…"

"That was the original agreement," Kouen interrupted. "But with the destruction of Isnan, one of al-thamen's main soldiers, as well as the progress that has been made in destroying al-thamen, the council agreed that there was no point in punishing Hakuei for something that she did not do when the end is so near to us." That didn't seem to make Sinbad any happier.

Brother shivered, whispering something about the rukh around Sinbad getting darker. More anxious. "The council agreed to this? Why was I not consulted?"

Koumei noticed his attitude, but was oblivious to the reason for it. "We did not think that it would be a problem for you either way. Either Hakuei would be told to remain in your kingdom which would have changed nothing for you. Or she will be able to come home in a month or so, which means that you wouldn't have to worry about having someone you didn't trust in your kingdom." Through Sinbad's anger, he knew their reasoning was just. They had no reason to have thought they were insulting Sinbad with their actions.

When I'd first learned about the history of my parents, I had always hoped that in their new world, they would fight for each other.

That wasn't our world.

But would Sinbad fight for Hakuei?

"…I see," Sinbad began, each words taking an effort to force out. "There may have been some…changes that will be effecting our previous arrangement on that." Kouen raised his eyebrow.

"Will there?" From his tone, I could tell he wasn't putting as much thought into the subject as Sinbad was. He truly thought it was just another thing that he ought to have mentioned, something that wouldn't cause any strife for either of them. From what we'd heard on our way to the meeting, my brother and I knew that Sinbad believed there was more to it than just that. No one had bothered to tell the Kou Empire apparently. "Is there a reason why Hakuei should remain in your country?"

No. There was none. Sinbad had no leg to stand on, and everyone in the room knew it.

They also knew better than to underestimate the first class singularity of the seven seas.

"While Hakuei has been here, we considered a few advantages there would be to keeping her here indefinitely," Sinbad admitted. The members on the other side looked shock, turning to Hakuei in surprise. She looked just as surprised as them. Sinbad continued before they could start coming to their own conclusions, ignoring the look Hakuei was giving him that said, _what the heck are you doing?_ "Because of how strained the relationship between Kou and Sindria is, it would be very easy for another war to start out. Only against Kou and Sindria." There were a few gasps in the room, though the source of them was never found. It sounded to me like it was one of those things that everyone knew was there, but no one dared to say it out loud. "I don't want that. And I certainly hope that you don't want that. So we thought it would be good for Hakuei to remain here, a physical reason for our two countries to not go to war. You would have a foothold in my country in case anything went wrong. And I would have one of your royal members as assurance you wouldn't attack us."

From the way the unnamed sisters were mumbling to each other in the background made me think that they would have no problem attacking if Hakuei was their only reason not to. The rest of them all whispered to each other, trying to evaluate the situation. Kouen did not turn to any of his siblings, debating the idea internally. "You are suggesting Hakuei would stay here…Without the bracelet of course." Sinbad's eye twitched. Apparently he hadn't been suggesting that.

"Yes. Without the bracelet." He sounded defeated with his words.

In the background, Hakuei let out a sigh of relief. "About time," She mumbled.

The royal family didn't notice, all turning to face the source of the conversation. "Are you alright with this Hakuei?" Hakuryuu, the youngest prince, asked curiously. Her face said she was less than convinced.

Panicked the princess rushed to explain. "We were only discussing it, of course," Hakuei reassured her cousin. "We didn't make any agreements before consulting you. W-we weren't sure of anything, it was just an idea." I doubted that was what Sinbad wanted to hear. All the siblings turned to Kouen, waiting to see his reaction. He didn't look offended or displeased at the idea. The way he was stroking his chin actually said the opposite. He like the idea.

"Keeping Hakuei in Sindria to maintain the treaty between Sindria and Kou," Kouen mused. "If princess Hakuei has no objection to the idea, I would be willing to consider it. But how would you expect to give this arrangement a solid foundation? If Hakuei stayed in your country, would she remain as a guest? Would she become one of your generals?" That should have been good enough. Any other king or leader would have agreed to those kinds of terms, and expected nothing else in return.

Sinbad was not that sort of man.

Sinbad was a greedy man.

"I believe Hakuei would make a fine general of course, and if she were to stay I would have no objection into making her one of Sindria. However I had come to believe that Kou had a different tradition when it came to allowing members of their royal family to reside in a different country." That was enough to make Kouen's expression turn sour. Hakuei's eyes widened, realizing what he was implying. I'd seen enough of Kou culture in different worlds to know exactly what he was hinting at.

Marriage.

The Kou Empire sealed treaties with a marriage. Hakuei was taking her time in trying to decide, but if Sinbad could convince her country to get her to marry him, than the two of them could be engaged until she was ready. That way while she was deciding, she would have to stay with him and there would be no chance that her country would make her marry someone else while she was with him. It would force the two of them into a commitment, while still giving her space to decide. From Hakuei's expression, anyone could tell that she wasn't happy with that plan. But the difference was that in that situation, Sinbad had put it into the government's hands, and she wouldn't get a say in it. It improved his chances from just a 50-50 to an 80-20 for him.

 _Sneaky,_ I couldn't help but admire. _Not bad._

Wisely, no one had spoken up about the idea, or even said the word out loud.

For all of five seconds.

"You want to marry Hakuei?" Everyone turned to face the images of the three princess's that everyone had forgotten about. Seriously, why were they even there? The tallest one looked offended at the idea. "Why would you want to marry her? She'd hardly worthy to be a wife! She's not even one of the official princess's anymore, she's an unofficial princess! Our father was the previous emperor after her, which makes her less than us!" Hakuei's eyes narrowed at her cousins. I started to remember why my brother and I had never bothered learning their names. The king of Sindria blinked in surprise, having forgotten about them as well.

Kouen, after a quick glare at his sister for speaking out of turn, took advantage of the situation. "That is a good point Koumeria." Kouha gave him a look that said, _it is? Are you sure?_ "Hakuei is no longer one of the official princesses of Kou. While still a princess, since she is not the daughter of the previous emperor, her position gives her less power than the others, which means we cannot give her into marriage for a treaty. Though I am now the emperor, Hakuei is still my cousin and not my pure blood sister, which means the law stays the same. Also the other officials wouldn't want her to marry because of…personal reasons involving Hakuei." Consciously, Hakuei tugged at her sleeves. Her cheeks turned slightly pink, and her eyes flickered away from Sinbad's gaze. "The only available princess's that could be married is Kougyoku, Koumeria, Koulania and Koumokan." Kougyoku squeaked at the mention of her name, turning bright red and trying to hide her image behind one of her brothers.

Whelp. That backfired really quickly.

I wondered if they could see how pale Sinbad got through the inventions Yamu had made. Hakuei's face, I noticed, also turned slightly pink at the idea. (I didn't know Jealousy could make someone turn red) Sinbad hadn't considered Hakuei's cousins when he'd been thinking of the idea. "I…I was under the impression that all of the other princesses of kou had been engaged already."

"That was the case," Kouen explained. "But recently that has changed. Koulania lost her husband in the war that happened previously. Koumeria's husband divorced her about a month ago,"

"I divorced HIM," Koumeria insisted. Though as far as I could tell, women didn't have that right in that time period in the Kou Empire.

"…Right…And Koumokan is engaged, but it is a loose engagement. Kougyoku is a general and a highly valued one at that, which means that she can refuse to marry if she wishes, but I'm sure if the need was great enough she would relent. Right Kougyoku?" The poor princess looked so surprised she was going to faint.

Weakly she was able to reply. "Um…okay?" Sinbad looked less than grateful at her response.

"I understand your point, but Hakuei-" He paused when Kouen raised his eyebrow. "…Princess Hakuei, has been here with us for over a year now. We all trust her, and it would be better for the generals and my countries residents to have a queen they have known and grown accustomed to." Hakuei turned a shade lighter than snow at the suggestion of her becoming a queen. Sinbad barely glanced at her, too preoccupied with his debate.

The emperor shook his head, trying to reason with him calmly. "While your reasoning is sound in a public sense king Sinbad, legally and politically I cannot authorize such an arrangement. Legally Hakuei cannot be married for sake of a treaty, and the council would find it suspicious that you married the same person you were supposed to be guarding." That was an interesting tidbit of info. Guarding? What had Hakuei done?

"She isn't being married for the sake of a treaty, but an alliance," Sinbad argued, trying to find a difference between two words with nearly identical meanings. "We already have a treaty in place, the marriage would be just to strengthen it. There is no need for any politics to be legally put into play. They could be the…official reason, but the law would have to play no part. And you already said the council has cleared her of any faults."

"Weren't you the one who thought she should be imprisoned for safety reasons in the first place? And any kind of marriage with a princess, unless it was someone from our country, has to have some kind of legal reason behind it!"

"But she is still a princess of Kou! She should be able to marry for an alliance if necessary!"

"If it's truly that important, than it would have to be one of my sisters, not my cousin!"

"In special circumstances, can't exceptions be made?"

"Sinbad, do you not understand? It doesn't matter if I agree to it or not, I cannot legally allow such a thing!"

"You are the emperor! Change the laws!" Sinbad exclaimed, slipping just a bit to allow his real emotions to show. Kouen growled, his frustration starting to show as well. It was a battle that neither of them would win, and they both knew it. The observers watched in silent horror, appalled by how what they thought should have been such a simple discussion had taken such a drastic turn.

Others were just annoyed. "What is the big deal?" The princess-Koumeria?-Shouted again. "Why on earth would you want a princess covered in scars? This is a treaty isn't it? Why does it matter that it's Hakuei instead of one of us." A very interesting point. Probably given for the wrong reasons, but an interesting point all the same.

"That is true," Kouen agreed, turning back to the king. "This shouldn't be a matter of great discussion. Is there any reason that you would want to have Hakuei as your bride instead of one of my sisters?" When worded like THAT it was hard for Sinbad to say anything without it sounding like an insult. Sinbad's eyes flickered to Hakuei, her eyes pleading with him to drop it. It was a big deal. It was a very big deal. What was going on with them? If they had some relationship, shouldn't her family know about it? Or at least her brother? Maybe they had done something they weren't supposed to do, and had to cover it up. Or she knew something about his country that he wanted to keep under wraps? If I was delusional, I could tell myself that it was because they were from the world I was from. But I'd made that mistake to many times to consider it again.

With my brother acting the way he had been that day, he might make the mistake and get attached if things went Sinbad's way. I didn't want to risk that.

For their world, it sounded like a big deal.

For me, it was just a waste of time.

"Frankly, I don't care who you people marry," I interrupted, all eyes turning to me. "But you called us here to talk about something. If we're not going to be doing that today, then tell us now so we can get going." Alibaba tried to warn me, tell me that I couldn't do that in the middle of a negotiation between two countries. But I had the feeling they weren't trying to be too formal.

The yelling had been my first clue.

Composing himself, Kouen nodded. "Yes, you are right. My apologies for the distraction." Turning to Sinbad he told him, "We can continue to discuss this later King Sinbad." He didn't look to happy about it, but he relented. From the way Hakuei had turned red as well as the icy glare she was sending him, I wondered if there would be a 'later' for him. The emperor of Kou turned to me, and any lingering curiosity towards them faded away.

"My country has decided that, considering the fact that the two of you are not from this world, we would like to offer you the chance to become citizens of the Kou Empire."

Strategically, I raised my eyebrow, not giving out any promises one way or another. "Is that so?"

 _Why would you do that?_ My brother asked, finally coming to his senses I thought. But when I glanced at him the hope in his eyes nearly made me sick. He was considering the idea. He wanted to be closer to family, I knew it. Why couldn't he see that it just wasn't possible?

From what I knew of Kouen, speaking charming words and trying to trick us into doing what he wanted wasn't his style. He'd more likely tell us the truth upfront so as to avoid any consequences in the future. Turned out I was right. "To be honest, we'd like to know what you know." Kouha mumbled in the background about how the 'we' was more just for Kouen. Koumei elbowed him in the gut. "Your information on universes could be very valuable for us as a country. Of course you would be free to remain in our country after you have told us what you know. You may do as you like after that. Perhaps become generals if you like." A general? That sounded fun. I wondered how my brother would look in one of those suits.

"Their information on alternate worlds? Don't you think that is dangerous information to keep in only one country?" All eyes turned to Sinbad. The smirk on his face was forced, put there as if he had no choice. That made me think the situation was about to turn dicey.

Kouen's eyes narrowed at Sinbad. "Are we no longer able to continue to learn now that we are allied with the seven seas alliance? I don't remember seeing that under your list of terms."

"Learning more information is fine, but the kind of information these boys have could easily be more useful for battle than to write in books."

Koumei bristled. "Are you accusing our country of getting information solely so we can use it to attack others?"

"Your country is famous for war and annihilating other civilizations," Hinahoho interrupted. "It's not a huge jump to assume that's why you'd want them there. The atmosphere in the room became so tense, I could have cut it with a knife, set it on a plate and served it out for a fourth of July party cake.

"We don't do that anymore!" Kougyoku interjected on her countries behalf. "How dare you assume we are capable of nothing more than war! Do we not have the right to learn?"

"I'd say that kind of information should only be given to trusted characters," Sharkkon hissed back, siding with his king. "Most of them are standing on this side."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hakuryuu, to my surprise, got up to defend his cousins. "How could you say that when you know hardly anything about our family at all?"

"We've seen enough from the way they act," Yamu murmured, trying to keep her cool while the others couldn't. "It's hard to trust a country with war engraved in their culture.

"Is that really what you think of us?" Hakuei asked, her eyes trained on Sinbad. The king didn't respond. I couldn't tell what got to him more. The fact that Hakuei was turning on him, or that she had allied herself with them instead of him.

"What makes you think that you should be the one who keeps these children," Kouen growled, "With all of the knowledge they have?" My brother and I looked at each other. Knowledge? I had a hard time learning how to tie my shoes.

"What makes you think that you should be the only ones to learn what they know," Jafar jumped in on Sindria's behalf. "That kind of information should be shared with the other countries of the alliance as well."

"Because you are so good at sharing information with all your allied countries?" Kouha broke in, accusingly. Man, and I'd thought the previous situation had been bad. I was starting to see why Kouen had been considering a stronger treaty between the two countries. It was almost amusing to watch the two countries going at each other like that. Turning to my brother I was going to ask him if he could make us some popcorn. But my brother wasn't happy.

My brother looked like his heart was shattering.

It was a nightmare he had. I knew it, though he'd never told me. Our parents always had a hard time working things out, no matter what world. It was what made their relationship so famous, the things they had to overcome. The only problem was that drama and 'things to overcome,' didn't exactly make a perfect, happily ever after. Usually it branched out to two houses. The country of Kou, our mother's side, and the country of Sindria, our father's side. The two countries would get sucked into their battles, turning family against family. My brother had never been able to stand that reality. He wanted to be at peace with both families. He loved all of them, whether they were related by blood or not. He never wanted any of them to fight.

More than that, he never wanted to have to pick a side.

Resting a hand on his shoulder, I forced him to look up at me. I didn't give him time to read my mind, so I hoped he could read it on my face.

 _I'll handle it._

"What makes you all think that we're going to tell any of you anything?"

That got their attention.

All eyes turned to us, al conversation dropping in an instant. Skipping to the middle, I twirled around the centre as if it was my own personal dance floor. "This isn't necessary," I told them, making sure to look each one of them in the eye. "Cause from what I've seen, I'm not going to tell you anything!" waving at my brother I added, "My brother might, he's a big softy. But from what we've just seen, I seriously doubt it." They all looked stunned. What had they been expecting? That we would just tell them everything without a second thought? No, they were smart. They must have known it wouldn't be that easy.

But they had hoped.

"Let's just clear the air here, you know? It's so tense I'm shivering." It was so easy to take control, it was sad. I'd gained the power of the whole room, even if it was fake. "Let's be honest here. You guys probably don't actually believe their country can do nothing but fight wars, right?" Sindria's side, smartly, said nothing. "You just want an excuse to be able to keep all the information we have in our heads to yourselves. And you guys," I began, turning to face the Kou empire. "Believe they wouldn't share any information they got to anyone else, right? Well, I'll solve all your problems! I just won't tell you anything!" For probably the first time in a while, the room was silent. About time.

Jafar, to my surprise, was the first one to speak up. "But…didn't you want to come here? To learn about this time period and this world?" Had Aladdin told him that? Probably.

Faking a laugh, I made some of them jump in surprise. "Sure! But we really don't need your help for that! But we aren't fighting anyone's wars, or picking any side, or becoming someone's next meal ticket to power." Some of them looked confused at the term I used, so I didn't stop to let them ask. "The only reason we're going to help any of you out is because Aladdin and Alibaba are helping us out. And we're nice guys. As far as I can tell, neither of them want to start a war, so we have no reason to help encourage one."

Well. To be honest, we'd already started a few wars. But that was a different story.

"Why wouldn't you want to tell us about alternate worlds," Kougyoku asked, sounding genuinely confused. "Is it a secret?"

 _No,_ my brother told her. _We just don't like telling people._

On the other side, Pisti huffed. "Well that's plain rude. Don't you think we'd like to know? That's important information you are hiding! I thought you were supposed to be nice!" At her words, we both stopped. Slowly, we both turned too stared at her. Slowly she shivered, hiding behind Spartos for protection. That didn't change what we'd heard.

 _Nice?_ My brother asked. _We might be._

"Or we might not be."

 _It all depends._

"On what?" Pisti muttered?

 _On what you people think is nice._

"That is enough," Jafar interrupted, looking annoyed. "We all know you are going to tell us. You know it is going to help our world, no matter what country gets the information or not. Aren't you good men? Don't you want to help others learn?"

A good man.

A great man?

It had been a while since anyone called me that.

"I find it amusing that you think that I am a morally upstanding man.'

'I don't care about your laws. Your definition of justice and truth mean nothing to me. I've been to hundreds of worlds, each with their own definitions for everything. I've been to a world were a good man would be the one who sent his friends to the gallows for stealing a piece of bread. A good man would whip his son for picking the wrong side in a war. A good man would choose to kill 8000 people so that one could survive. This world doesn't bind me. I can pick my own, and for your sake, you'd better hope that it even slightly resembles yours. We can make it so no one in this room even exists, we could change your world so you will be stuck with one mindset for 400 years, heck, if we wanted to we could break your whole world so it became nothing but ashes and dust! You really think we care about what you want us to do? We may not rule your countries, but when it comes to alternate worlds, we run the show. Don't cross us."

They didn't. No one dared to speak a word.

 _Brother,_ He whispered at me. _I don't think we can actually do what you said we can._

"Shut up!" He shut up.

Perhaps I'd gone a little too far. I hadn't meant to make them hate us. I'd gotten a little carried away. Most of them looked at us with horror or shock. Aladdin and Alibaba more shock, since they knew we wouldn't do what we'd suggested. A few of them, Hakuei included, actually looked sympathetic to our story. Wondering what had happened to us if we'd gone to worlds like that.

What touched my hear, though I'd never admit it, was Sinbad looked down on us with pride in his eyes.

Easing my position, I tried to make it look like my threats had never happened. "We can tell you some stuff. A bit to help your world advance, learn a bit more. But we aren't picking a side. We aren't going to be the reason your world burns down when there is no guarantee that our information will even help you at all!"

"What do you mean by that?" Kouha asked, the only one brave, or crazy, enough to speak up.

"You are asking about different worlds. But that's the thing! They are different worlds! They are interesting to know about, sure, but most of the time they won't affect you at all. It's like when someone asks about whether the chicken or the egg comes first. Cool to know, but it won't change how you eat or cook the chicken!"

 _The most that they can do that will affect you is give you a deeper insight into others. Show you things about a person's character that you wouldn't learn in the situations they go through here_. _Some worlds have different kinds of technology that would be interesting, but you can't bring it into another one. There are other versions of each of you out there, but just because they have your DNA doesn't mean they are the same people. They have gone through different things than you, shaped them into different people. You can learn. But eventually, it won't matter, and you will forget._

My brother paused. _Everyone eventually forgets._

For my sake, I was glad no one decided to dwell on that.

"What do you all want to know?" I asked, deciding to get that out of the way. "Well tell you a few things, but that's it. We can't tell you everything." Silently, members of each country looked at each other. Wondering what the other wanted to know. I didn't know why they took so long deciding. I already knew what they were going to ask.

Sure enough, Kouen asked, "Alternate universes. That is our main concern." Course it was. It was everyone's main concern. What was out there? Who was out there? Could they help them? Could they attack them? Who would have more power? What could one tell the other? Who could conquer who? That kind of information, I'd always been very careful with giving away. The wrong information to just one powerful person could cause chaos in multiple worlds. I would only give that information away to someone I know wouldn't squander it.

Lucky for me, I owed two of that worlds residents a favour.

"Fine. We'll bring Alibaba and Aladdin to go see alternate worlds, and they can tell you what they see fit to tell you. That okay with you?"


	10. Living Legends

living legends

 **Hi peeps. I thought I was going to just stop writing this story since it seemed like no one was reading it and I had lost interest, but I decided that I should at least finish it. (Another reason why I haven't updated my other stories) So this is going to be really quick and skip a few things, but at least it will be done. Enjoy I guess!**

Seriously. It was their first time traveling to other worlds. Where did they think I was going to take them? Atlantis? Narnia? Wonderland.

Good, that's exactly what I did.

Over the course of a month (At least by their time) my brother and I dragged Alibaba and Aladdin around to different worlds. We ended up having to spend at least a week in every world, which was EXTREMELY dull. My brother and I had never spent that much time getting used to our surroundings, but the two of them had a hard time taking in what was right in front of them. THEN, to make it worse, they spent just as much time afterwards explaining what they learned to both of the earlier parties. Kouen asked so many questions even my brother and I couldn't answer them. Sinbad had been fairly interested at first, but most of his generals had started to lose interest when we told them that we weren't going to bring them anything from the worlds. Yamu had glared at us for days after that. I'd been happy when we got to leave.

Speaking of Sinbad…that man was an anomaly. It seemed like every day we were back he wanted to do something new. One time he tried to teach my brother and me how to fish. I couldn't tell if he was happy or sad when we admitted we already knew how. Another time he took us to ride horses. Then we went swimming. Once he even brought us to his personal library and showed us the books that he'd written. I wasn't THAT into stories, but I liked learning about the history.

My brother had been the one to naively point out to him that Princess Hakuei didn't HAVE to come every time we came back. Sinbad had tried to play it off saying he hadn't intended that, but after that I noticed he was not happy when she couldn't make it. Hakuei seemed oblivious to his reasoning as well. The king certainly had a thing for making sure that the four of us were always doing something fun together. It felt like he was making up for lost time or something. If that was true, he should have been making up for the lost time that he wasted when he was supposed to be working.

Man. I hoped my real dad wouldn't run away from Jafar that quickly. It was like the work was his own personal demon.

The last place that we brought Alibaba and Aladdin to holds a special place in my heart.

And that place in my heart is labelled as 'places I love to HATE.'

The cheers started the minute we got there. "The living Legends! The living legends are here!" I'd made the mistake to land us in the middle of the peasant's village. Crowds instantly recognized the work of my djinn and came flooding towards us. Alibaba and Aladdin nearly choked in surprise. "Living Legends, what a miracle! And they brought friends!" My brother helplessly gave a weak smile, but I could tell he hated that place just as much as I did.

"Yeah yeah, make way people!" The crowds reluctantly parted as I pushed through so that we could TRY to find some place to talk. "We're here on business, not for you! Leave us be!" But while the cheering died away, none of us could avoid the curious stares that followed is everywhere we went. It was a mistake to bring them to a world we were so well known in. "Yeesh. I hate all these people. Don't they have lives to get to?"

 _They aren't so bad brother,_ my brother weakly tried to argue. I rolled my eyes while Alibaba and Aladdin stared at their surroundings in awe.

"What is this place?" Alibaba asked us as I dragged him far FAR away from the crowd. "And why are they called you two the 'living legends?"

 _This is universe 349856,_ my brother answered. _It's a world that is currently still in what you would call the 'medieval' era, though it might still be a few centuries ahead of your time. This world isn't that different from your world, so we thought you might not be that much of a shock for you. It has a lot of the people from your world, but different. And all the governments are different. Here they all work together in 'the twelve' it's hard to explain, but basically twelve kings and queens work together to govern the nations._

"As for that 'living legends' thing," I added with a bit too much pride in my voice, "That's what they call us. We have visited this world every once in a while, but for them whole generations pass between our visits. Sometimes when we are here we help out with big things. Mostly wars, battles, big discoveries. Someone along the way decided to call us the 'living legends,' because we were legends that would never die or age to them." Aladdin stared at me. I didn't like the way he was staring. I'd never really thought about what people would think if I showed them what it was like to live like us. But every world that we went to, that kid always had the same look.

Pity.

Why was there pity?

I didn't need his pity.

"So anyway," Alibaba continued, still shaking off what he'd just seen. "Why did you bring us here?"

"Hmm? Oh, just to show you that no universe is the same. In one universe, everyone thought you had died and the world turned into a sci-fi place." His expression said that he didn't have a clue what sci-fi meant. Lucky him. "There's all kinds of different worlds. And in a lot of them, there are the same people." The duck-like expression on Alibaba's face said he didn't understand. "Here, it's like this. There is more than one Alibaba out there, but they aren't all the same Alibaba. They would all be different. Maybe one would be good, one would be evil, one would be shy, and one would get all the ladies."

"I hate that one," Alibaba grumbled.

 _I thought he was kind of cocky,_ my brother admitted.

"I thought he had good dancing skills," I huffed. "But that's not the point. See, look there." The two of them glanced behind us to see who I was pointing at.

A young Marga ran past us happily.

"MARGA?" We had to hold Aladdin back before he rushed after her. She was wearing peasant like clothing, with dirt all over her feet and shoes. She was running towards a large crowd of people looking at something. I heard a few of them talking about some kinds of masks or who was under them. Probably a king or queen of the twelve. "What is Marga doing here? Did she follow us? We have to go get her!"

"No we can't!" I yelled as I grabbed him by both arms. "Haven't you been listening to anything we've told you over the last five weeks? That's not your Marga!"

"W-what?" Aladdin hesitated, staring up at me in surprise. My brother shot me a glare that said, _I told you it was too soon._ I just glared back at him saying. _Well there never was going to be a good time, was there?_

 _That's a different Marga,_ my brother had to explain to him once he'd calmed down. _In many worlds there are the same people, but they are different. Like my brother told you, they will be the same but not the same. That Marga won't recognize you, she doesn't know you. She had the same biology and you think you recognize her, but she will not be what you think she will. She has grown up in this world that is different, which means she is different. She may be someone you absolutely hate for all you know._

"I could never hate Marga!" Aladdin insisted. "I'd never hate my friends!"

Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that. 

"How is that possible," Aladdin asked. "I mean, if what you said is true, then these people shouldn't be around."

I frowned as we climbed up onto a roof to try and avoid the crowds. "How so?"

"Because you said that they are different," he repeated, "Then shouldn't their ancestors have been different to? Like, their parents. What if they didn't love each other and have their kids, which means they wouldn't have been born?" Ooooh.

"That's how we section off worlds actually," I told him as I sat crossed legged on the roof. "Yes, in worlds with different people mean different couples. But we found in a lot of worlds that the couples are the same. It's like, if one couple is different compared to another, than all the couples will be. That way the next generation will be with all the same people as a world with the same couples as them."

"That's…confusing." Aladdin replied.

My brother laughed. _For example, you, Alibaba and Morgianna. There are some worlds that you didn't meet, but in all the worlds where one of you exist, all of you exist. But in another world, none of you would exist. It's not like, Alibaba and Morgianna would exist but not Aladdin. It's always the three of you. That way every world will have the same people, even if they are kind of different._

"Some worlds it's different. If the person changes from universe to universe, than the person they love would change to. In one universe my mom ends up with Kouen, and Sinbad ends up with some girl with pink hair."

 _I thought it was Jafar,_ my brother pouted, perplexed. _But it's alright with us. They aren't our versions, so as long as they are happy it's fine with us._

"Isn't that weird though?" Aladdin asked. "Seeing your parents but they aren't together when you know they should be?"

"They can't be together in EVERY universe," I shrugged. "That's not how it works. With every generation comes a new set of worlds for new sets of people because of the different potential couples."

 _Our parents are together in a lot of them though!_ My brother insisted proudly. _They dated in Hogwarts, in one mom was a cop that chased dad, in another they were both superheroes-_

"They get the point brother," I hushed him quickly. "Sucks for your world that things aren't heading that way. You're missing out on two amazing kids if you ask me," I smirked.

"No one asked you." The smirk died.

"What kinds of magic do they have here?" Aladdin asked my brother. Instantly he brightened.

 _I'll show you!_ He grabbed his hand and pulled him to the edge, only stopping to shout back at me. _We'll be back in a bit brother! Don't leave without us!_

He knew I wouldn't, but my heart jumped a bit when he left. "Be careful!" I called after him. There was no guarantee he'd heard me. The two had jumped before I could say another word. I stared off after him cautiously, making sure I knew exactly where he was going and who was around him. I didn't notice Alibaba paying close attention to me.

"You two fight wars," Alibaba started. At first I thought he was just asking out of curiosity. It took me a second to notice the dark undertone to his voice.

"Yeah. A bit."

His frown deepened. "Sinbad wouldn't have liked that. Neither would Princess Hakuei. They both fight hard so that wars don't have to happen."

My heart lurched out at the irony of his statements. Two people who had fought forever to avoid wars. And their sons were famous for being the kinds of them. Living Legends of battle. "Yeah, well, they can't fix every world," I shrugged to try and seem normal. "They weren't really convincing to me. Certainly seemed like those two groups back at your world would have loved to go at each other."

Alibaba didn't deny it. He didn't agree with it either. "And that bothers you?" I blinked in surprise. Mostly because, I was surprised to find it was true. Also that Alibaba was smart enough to notice it.

"I just…I don't understand you people. You're all so willing to go off and start wars and fight for…for what? Some more land? A few more people under your rule?" I shook my head, angry at how lucky they were. "You people just don't get it. I've got this really cool djinn and my brother has a lot of rukh, but we'd give that all up to have what you guys have. You have a family, a home. I can't count the times that I've seen worlds like yours. My father with all his generals and friends, not having to worry about if he'd ever see them again. Or my mother happy with all her cousins. So many times I've looked at all of you and thought, 'Man, I want that.' you people have so much more than I'll even understand. I'd give up everything if my brother and I could have a family. Heck, I'd give up fighting. But you're all so willing to throw it all away."

Neither of us spoke a word. The bustle of the crowds underneath us was the only sound to accompany our silence. Alibaba was soaking in all that I had said while I wondered why on earth I had said it at all. Who cared what one world did? They were just idiots, all of them. I was going to say goodbye to all of them anyway. What did me care of the Kou Empire and Sindria's generals ended up at each other's throats?

 _Because they are your family,_ my brother had told me many times. Each time, I'd tried to ignore him.

"You are right." Alibaba admitted, unable to meet my gaze. "It doesn't make sense. Maybe we all are a little spoiled, a little…selfish. But I know that deep down they only want what they believe is for the best. They care about their families, and I know they won't fight unless they have to. I won't let it happen."

That made me outright die of laughter. "You? No offense, but what could you do?"

His face had turned a bright shade of red. "I-I don't know yet. But I'll do something. I've already seen good people die for battles that should have never come to pass. My brother has already been a victim of that. And I won't let your families be victims of that either." I couldn't help but stop laughing there. I knew exactly who he was talking about. And I knew it was hard for him to talk about.

Then, slowly, a smile grew on his face. "I sense a pattern forming here," Alibaba huffed, standing up and stretching out his arms. I stared at him like he was as mad as the mad hatter. Ironically, someone he had met.

"What?" He grinned down at me, a fire in his eyes.

"In other worlds, did my father help teach your dad many things?" It took me a moment to recall the history of other worlds.

"In a lot of them, yeah." Alibaba nodded, expecting my answer.

"Well, when I first started off my journey, Sinbad was one of the ones who helped get me started and become one of my main supports. My dad helped him, and he helped me. It's only fitting I help you." He grinned down at me as the sun shone around him. "I'll help you by making sure your family doesn't fight. Maybe teach you a thing or two they taught me. How's that?"

I just continued to stare at him. "You…I-I don't care what happens to the people of your world. You can do what you want. They can fight for all I care. It was just an opinion, a statement to how stupid they all are." My crossed arm's and annoyed expression did nothing to Alibaba's grin.

"Suuuuure you don't," he pretended to agree. Jerk. "Besides," Alibaba added, slipping his arm around my shoulders. "I've still got to get back at you for me earlier." We both laughed casually. I kept the smirk on my face.

He could try.

It wasn't until we brought them home till I noticed something was different. They went to speak to the two countries like they usually did. My brother and I strolled after them like we usually did. The sun was in the air, the grass was on the ground and the water was in the ocean like it was supposed to be in that world.

But King Sinbad was not in the throne room.

He was waiting for us. And he looked like he had something important to say.

"I have something to tell you two," He explained with a grave expression. "Now."

 **Yes, this chapter was really bad. And short. I'm just rushing to get it all done so even if it isn't the best at least you'll know what was supposed to happen.**


	11. Samson and Shiloh

Samson and Shiloh

"This had better be good."

 _Don't be rude,_ my brother chastised me. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine." Then, with a sweet smile and a false happy voice I repeated, "This had better be good!" My brother just sighed.

King Sinbad had brought us back to his office. Normally there would have been servants to help organize the files, or perhaps a few officials who were asking for something to be signed. But as we had walked through Sinbad had insisted everyone leave. Even the guards at the front were told to go away. He certainly had a lot of faith that we weren't secret assassins charged with murdering him. One time we got that job.

It didn't end well.

"So what did you bring us here for," I questioned the king who sat at the desk across from us. "I certainly hope it's important enough to drag us away from the meeting. I doubt that Kouen will be happy if Aladdin or Alibaba miss anything important." I half expected that to work. Sinbad had been struggling, but anyone could see how desperately he wanted to get along with the Kou Empire. I had a feeling that had something to do with the princess who had been put under his charge.

The last time there had been a meeting, Sinbad and Kouen had gotten into an argument. Something about the uses of technology from other worlds if they could find a way to get a hold of it. Sinbad had looked particularly displeased with the turn of the conversation. I'd thought he was going to actually attack him, but Hakuei had grabbed his arm. "King Sinbad!" She'd hissed at him. He glared down at her for a beat. Then, slowly, he'd forced himself to calm down.

It had been fun to watch.

The Sinbad in front of us looked just as disturbed as he had been before. "You might want to sit down." My eyes narrowed at the weight with every word. Brother glanced up at me to see if I'd noticed. It was odd that he'd think anything he could tell us would be that vital. We'd been to hundreds of worlds, and he thought some news from one would shock us? Heck, one time a guy had told me that my brother had accidentally turned an entire village into dinosaurs. Now THAT had shocked me. I doubted anything he could say would beat that.

"We'll stand, thanks." Sinbad raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue.

"Suit yourselves." With a sigh, he leaned back in his chair. For a moment no one said anything as Sinbad debated how to start. I could almost see his thoughts in his head. _Am I really going to do this? Is it really worth it? Can I do this now?_ In the end, his determination must have one, because he asked us, "You told us all, when you came here, that you were from a world that had been destroyed then recreated."

My brother nodded. _Yes. Al-thamen had done something terrible, so our father tried to fix it by sending the world back in time. What he didn't know was doing that destroyed his world and created a new one with the same people, but different experiences. That inevitably left us behind and we've been searching for it since we discovered what had happened._ Sinbad nodded, seemingly pleased. But I had to bite my inner lip to maintain my composure. He didn't need to tell him that much. More than that, it bugged me that Sinbad wasn't bothered, or surprised by any of the information.

"Have you ever found that world?"

My eyes flashed. I felt my hands tighten at my sides and my nails dug into my palm. "NO. We have not found it." I wondered if my voice was as stone cold as my heart felt. How dare he ask us such a thing? If we had, wouldn't we have been there instead of listening to him.

Brother had an easier time keeping his calm. _Not yet. Why do you ask?_

Again he didn't speak right away. He just closed his eyes, and I imagined hundreds of images flashed across his eyelids. Assumptions of what would happen. Guessing how we would react. Deciding how to tell us whatever he thought was so important. But he wasn't a time traveler. Maybe he could see fate, but he couldn't see everything. There was no way to know how we would react.

And there was no way we could have predicted what he'd said.

"This is it."

I raised one eyebrow. "This is…what?"

"This is that world," he explained. "This world is the one that was recreated. The one that you belong in."

…

…

…have you heard of a 'time bomb?'

Not many people have. Only some of the more advanced worlds have created them. Sometimes brother and I actually confiscated them from worlds because we knew that they were going to destroy themselves if they kept playing with them. Basically, you could set them for a certain amount of time. Usually there was a limit of an hour. When they went off, everything within a specific radius would stop. Completely freeze, leaving anyone who wasn't within the radius free to move around and do as they like.

If I hadn't been in that world for a few months, I would have assumed someone had just thrown one.

Outside of the room, we could hear the world going on. The wind was brushing its fingers through the trees. Clattering footsteps on pathways outside clicked along to their destination. Birds competed with the wind for the loudest anthem. The room we were in? Nothing moved. Sinbad did not breathe as he kept an eye on both of us. My brother's hand which had been playing with the sleeve of his shirt remained there as if he'd sewn it together. As for myself, I looked like the stone statue of a stubborn advisor, with my arms crossed in front of my chest and eyes wide-open. All of us had wide eyes. We didn't even blink.

Our world.

The world we were in…

Was our world?

 _Are…you serious?_ My brother had been the first to speak. But I guess that it was easier for him, considering he didn't actually have to speak. Everything came out mentally. For the first time I was jealous that he wasn't able to speak. _This…It can't be…how do you know?_

"Because I remember," Sinbad began. It was easier for him to speak since someone else had started. "I remember what the world was like before everything changed. I was the one who begged Yunan to send the world back in order to save the women I loved. Back then Hakuei was one of the 9 generals, as well as my queen. Kou and Sindria didn't have this…these outstanding rivalries and disputes that have put us on the brink of war time and time again. I was there when Isnan attacked my country and took Hakuei's life." His eyes caught mine, daring me to contradict him. But how could I? His facts were correct. It was exactly as it had been. But no one from their world should have known that. We hadn't told anyone.

The only ones who could have known that other than us, were people who had been there.

 _This…can't be…We would have known…_ He had a hard time trying to get the proper words out. Even though I struggled to speak, at least I was able to articulate them better.

"This can't be our world," I concluded. "We always thought…Our mother and father will be together when we find them! When our real dad gets his memories back, he'll go to mother right away! You only met Princess Hakuei over two years ago. You can't be our father. That's not how…Our father would already be married to her! Heck, I'd probably be born already!" To my astonishment, Sinbad winced. Actually winced.

There was guilt in his eyes.

"I should have," he sighed, drooping his eyes to stare at the blank paper on his desk.

I blinked. Not sure I had the energy to do anything else. "What?"

"I should have found her right away," Sinbad admitted. With one hand he covered half of his face, as if trying to block the memories out. "But the truth was, even when I got my memories back, I did nothing. I didn't act or do anything until two years ago. That's why she's in my country right now." My heart stung. Part of it was from the shock.

Then, slowly, I realized there was rage.

"Wait, you…You knew who she was for years, and you did nothing? Nothing at all?"

He shook his head. "There wasn't a good time,"

"A good time?" I laughed without any humor. "My brother and I have been searching for years. We've been struggling to survive since-since I've been born, and you didn't do anything because 'it wasn't a good time?'"

Sinbad shook his head. I could hear a hint of desperation in his tone as he tried to get through to me. "I didn't know about you two. I had no idea that we had children, or that anyone else would even be hurt by what I'd done."

"Even so," I growled. My teeth gnashed together like two hammers going head on against each other. "That is no excuse. You knew mom-Hakuei was out there, and you did nothing? Just-just take away how stupid that was to do to the both of you, what about your countries? Kou and Sindria used to be at peace! They had one of the greatest alliances held strong for what was going to be hundreds of years! Now look at everything! You're on the brink of war with her family! You struggle to stay in the same room without someone screaming at the other! Why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you say anything?"

"What was I supposed to say?" He slammed his hands down on the desk, getting up as he did. There was a similar rage that mimicked mine, but no were near as powerful. The desperation in his tone dulled down the anger. "She didn't remember anything. She didn't even know who I was! There was no way she was going to believe me. No one would believe me, and then I would never be able to fix things." Fix things? FIX THINGS?

"You coward!" I screamed at him, and I was sure that anyone walking through the halls could hear me. "You could have gone to her and explained. You could have found a way to talk to her country! You just didn't do anything to save your own pride!" Anger flashed though Sinbad's face at my accusations. But as a king, he had much better control over himself.

"Perhaps I did," Sinbad admitted. "It was not just my own pride on the line if other countries saw me as a fool. I had a country to build, people who relied on me. I couldn't be selfish enough to throw all their hopes away just for myself."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT US?" I roared. "What about my brother and me? What about Hakuei? You were willing to let us suffer for years trying to find where we belonged? We were just kids! I'm…I don't even know how old I am, and I had to take care of my younger brother all on my own because YOU didn't think it was a good time to tell her anything?" Before he could object that he didn't know about us, I yelled again. "And your people? Yeah, I'm sure your people are going to be so grateful when they die in battle against the country you didn't bother to talk to for years! All because of one person! Because 'the timing wasn't right.'"

"It's not that simple," Sinbad tried to explain. "There are more things that need to be put into the picture. Not everything has such a simple answer. You don't understand,"

"No, YOU don't understand!" my words crushed his down to a hopeless memory. "This can't be how things are. This is not my world," I insisted. "This can't be our world! Nothing… this isn't how I…"

"What?" Sinbad challenged. "This isn't how you pictured it? Did you think everything would just be perfect, and you could waltz into your world and live a perfect happy life? You may like to think that the lives you've lived have made you more mature than most, and your right, they have. But you are still a child! You don't understand everything that is going on, the complexity to even the smallest decision. I'm sorry that you had to grow up so fast, I wish I could go back and change that, but your experiences haven't made you omniscient!"

"I never said they had!"

"Then stop acting like you believe it!" Sinbad yelled back. "Do you doubt I love Hakuei? I love Hakuei. I would have died for her, I would have taken the fall all those years ago so she didn't have to if I had the chance. I would fall completely into depravity if it meant I could just hold her for one night again. Perhaps it is the greed in me that made me refuse to hold her for just that one night. I had to have her again. That's why I waited so long. Because I couldn't lose her again! I went through years waiting for the right time because I just couldn't risk scaring her off. Because I can't go through that again! Can you understand that at least?"

Rage was boiling through my veins. I wanted to shout at him to go jump off a cliff. But I couldn't. I refused to admit to myself that there was logic behind his words. There just couldn't be. It wasn't right! They were supposed to be together, there wasn't supposed to be a potential war with Kou, and my brother and I were supposed to have a place to call home! What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say?

He was exactly like I pictured he would be.

He was nothing like I pictured he would be.

We'd found our world.  
It wasn't our world.

We belonged.

We'd never belong.

What was even happening?

"Just…No, I can't accept this," My brain felt like it was going to explode. There were too many thoughts, to many feelings to sort through. I actually grabbed my head with both hands as if the force I put on it would keep everything in order. "How…How did all of this…"

"Samson!"

I stopped fighting. Not because I wasn't mad anymore, but out of confusion. What the heck had he called me? I'd never been called something like that before. No one I had followed had that name. "S…Samson? Who the heck is that?" Sinbad was looking at me with a pained expression. His gold eyes looked like mine. Every version of him did. But that was the first time that I looked at those eyes and knew that he really had my eyes. Or I had his.

With a sigh he admitted, "Hakuei and I…well, we didn't know that she was pregnant. Honestly, we weren't sure if she could have kids. But we…one day we were just talking about it and decided to pick names so we wouldn't have to worry about it. We decided that if she had a boy than we'd call him Samson." My eyes widened. Was what he was saying true? I really did have a name? I actually had a NAME. Me! An official name that I hadn't picked off the top of my head in the morning. Given to me by my parents. It sounded almost impossible.

Samson, first prince of Sindria. That was me.

"…"

I couldn't take it.

"No. No I'm not…I'm not who…" Before I could even discover what I was going to say, I did something I'm very ashamed of.

I ran.

Perhaps I am a bit like my father.

Turning on my heels, I crashed open the doors behind me and sprinted out of the room. In a desperate attempt to find something that made sense. Something to help sort out all that I had learned.

Somewhere I really could belong.

…

* * *

After I had left, Sinbad had jumped to his feet. "Samson!" He tried to get around the desk to run after me. But before he could reach the door, he felt something small tugging on his cloak. Turning, he caught sight of my little brother. He stared up at him with wide eyes filled with emotion. But not the same ones that I had.

There was some hope in his.

Sinbad immediately stopped when he saw him. He'd been so quiet Sinbad had forgotten he was there. It was easy to forget about my quiet little brother, smaller physically and kept his contemplations to himself. People had told us he was more like our mother with that. Everyone always said he was more like our mother, and I was like our father.

Perhaps that was why I had a harder time accepting what our father said. And he was more willing to welcome it.

 _My brothers really…emotional,_ my brother tried to explain, shuffling his feet nervously. _He's been looking for a long time. Just give him some time._ The king paused. He was partially embarrassed for forgetting about his younger son. My actions were bolder and louder, sometimes it was hard to remember there was two of us. Even though that was true, we could both be appreciated for our differences equally.

"…Alright…That sounds fine." He paused. Then he knelt down in front of my brother so they were eyelevel. Perhaps my brother should have been surprised at his actions, but that wasn't like him. He had an easier time reading people than I did. And a far better time responding to their actions. That he got from dad. "You haven't said much about this."

 _I don't really know what to say,_ he admitted so quietly Sinbad barely heard him. _We've been searching for so long…_

Sinbad inwardly cringed. He hadn't known he'd had two children out there. When he'd learned he had…and what lives they lived, he'd nearly gone mad. He'd left two children out on their own because he hadn't paid more attention to the magic Yunan had caused. Because he hadn't given much thought to it at all. He'd just...done it. His youngest son was far more mature than he'd ever assumed. That was probably because of his life experiences. "Do you have anything you want to say?" He finally asked. "Or do you want to yell at me like him?" He tried to add a little humor in. My brother smiled a bit, but there was sadness inside.

 _Do…do I have a name to?_ He asked, a little too hopeful. The simplicity of the question made Sinbad smile just a bit.

"Well…we didn't think we'd have one child, let alone two…but our second choice for a name was Shiloh."

 _Shiloh…_ My brother's eyes widened, marvelling at the fact that he had a name. Unaware what he was doing, my brother slipped down on the ground and sat cross legged in front of Sinbad. After he had taken a moment to absorb the information, he looked up at my father. _Can I ask you another question?_

"Of course," Sinbad replied.

 _It's not that…I already know the story…but I just want to hear it from you…_

Sinbad nodded. "What is it?"

Then my brother looked up at nervously, like his question would become his downfall. _Can you tell me how you and mother met?_

Sinbad smiled. He also changed his position, so he was sitting in front of his son. "Sure."

Then my brother smiled.


End file.
